Hollywood loves a good inspirational story, and if you can mix that in with a light, socially progressive message, even better. So it’s no surprise that America’s dream factory has had its sights set on one Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa since back in 2007, when Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company caught wind of his unlikely life story through a radio program and snatched up the rights to his biography. Given America’s fractured political landscape and growing xenophobia, it seems now is the right time to spin the story of an undocumented immigrant-turned-world class neurosurgeon, and Plan B has partnered with Disney to move forward on the production of Dr. Q.
Quiñones-Hinojosa was born in a small village outside of Mexicali and made his way across the border at age 19, working in the fields around Fresno, California while he took English classes to improve his language skills. From there, community college in Stockton brought him to the psych program at U.C. Berkeley, which ultimately landed him in Harvard Medical School, where he graduated with honors. In other words, the current director of the Brain Tumor Surgery Program at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center is a certified modern genius.
While no actors have been formally considered for the role of Dr. Quiñones-Hinojosa, Plan B and Disney have tapped playwright and screenwriter Matt Lopez to pen the script. In addition to his award-winning theater work, Lopez has written his share of family friendly Hollywood fare, including The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Race to Witch Mountain. It may not seem like a huge deal, but the producers’ sensitivity and foresight in hiring a Latino scribe to pen a Latino story is admirable, and hopefully points toward more common-sense hiring decisions coming out of Tinseltown in the coming years.
Let’s just hope that when Dr. Q finally hits theaters, a newly-crowned King Trump doesn’t move to have it banned.
