Though Walden Media is currently saying that Jennifer Lopez is only set to produce the Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? big screen adaptation, experience tells us it will only be a matter of days or weeks until the story is revised to report that Jenny from the Block will don the signature red dress and big floppy hat to take on the titular master thief who travels around the world committing crimes in the name of the V.I.L.E. crime network.
Deadline says in an exclusive report that Lopez's Nuyorican Productions outfit hopes to turn the computer game/TV series into a big budget tent-pole adventure film a la National Treasure meets The Thomas Crowne Affair with Lopez attached only as producer. This would represent the second time the kid-friendly game franchise has been picked up for adaptation, with Disney optioning it in the late 1990s but failing to get it off the ground.
Lopez could probably pull off the physical look of Carmen San Diego with her captivating screen presence and mysterious allure, but the acting chops and box office draw of a Catherine Zeta-Jones or Salma Hayek might fit better into Walden's goal of producing a big budget blockbuster in the vein of Chronicles of Narnia or National Treasure. Plus, isn't JLo's current appeal hovering down there somewhere near that of Tom Cruise right now? Any doubts about that, just check out the box office receipts of The Back-up Plan.
