Imagine if some of the characters inspired by the original Lotería card game came to life. Which of them would you want as an ally? El Valiente (the brave man)? La Sirena (the mermaid)? Definitely not El Diablito (the little Devil).
Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez (Dora and the Lost City of Gold) will soon get to find which of them are friends and foes. According to Variety, Derbez will star in the new family adventure, Lotería, set to be released on Netflix. Derbez will play a widowed father trying to bond with his children when some of the characters awaken from the deck of Mexican bingo cards. It sounds a bit like Jumanji, doesn’t it?
Derbez’s character and family find themselves journeying across the world to keep the magical cards from falling into the wrong hands – specifically, a business tycoon who is up to no good.
Lotería will be directed by James Bobin (Dora and the Lost City of Gold) and written by Mexican-Cuban-American screenwriting brothers Roberto and J.R. Orci (Mission Impossible III, The Blacklist).
On social media, questions arose on how the movie would handle some of the game’s more problematic cards.
In the past, movies based on real-life board games haven’t done well critically. The 1985 whodunit Clue received mixed reviews, while a film like Battleship sunk in 2012. The original 2014 horror movie Ouija was also dismissed, although its 2016 sequel Ouija: Origin of Evil was much more revered. An upcoming film based on the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons will star Michelle Rodriguez.
This year, Derbez also stars in the family drama CODA, which is likely to be the best performance of his career. The film, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, tells the story of an aspiring teenage singer who is the only member of her family who is not deaf. Derbez plays her supportive choir teacher, Bernardo Villalobos, who is helping her land a music scholarship.