Amazon MGM Studios‘ Orion Pictures is developing America Ferrera‘s feature directorial debut, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, after the project was previously set up at Netflix.
Ferrera is set to direct from a script by Linda Yvette Chávez that adapts author Erika Sánchez’s best-selling 2017 young adult novel of the same name. The story centers on Chicago-based teen Julia Reyes, who aspires to become a successful writer but struggles to live up to her family’s expectations following the tragic death of her seemingly perfect sister Olga.
The movie hails from Anonymous Content and Macro Film Studios. Producers include Doreen Wilcox Little, Charles D. King, Poppy Hanks and David Kuhn, while Sánchez and Greta Talia Fuentes serve as executive producers.
The Hollywood Reporter reported in February 2021 that the feature adaptation of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter was in development at Netflix. Chávez co-created the Netflix series Gentefied, which counted Ferrera as an executive producer.
Ferrera is represented by CAA and Peikoff Mahan. Chávez is repped by The Mission Entertainment, WME and Del Shaw. Sánchez is handled by The Gersh Agency, Trellis Literary Management and Frankfurt Kurnit.
Deadline first reported the news of the film landing at Orion.
This has been a busy stretch for Ferrera, who received her first Oscar nomination last month for her role in the Warner Bros. smash Barbie. She also co-starred in last year’s movie Dumb Money and has a voice role in the forthcoming Pixar title Elio. Previous credits include Ugly Betty, for which she won an Emmy, in addition to parts in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Superstore.
