Zetna Fuentes To Direct ‘Never Look Back’ For 3Pas Studios, Amazon Studios

(L-R) Zetna Fuentes, Talia Rothenberg, Romeo Santos and Lilliam Rivera Elizabeth Caren; Melanie Browdy; UTA; Michael Mayson

EXCLUSIVE: Prolific TV director Zetna Fuentes (Cursed) is set to helm the film Never Look Back, based on Lilliam Rivera’s 2019 novel of the same name, for 3Pas Studios and Amazon Studios, with Talia Rothenberg (Rebelde) adapting the screenplay.

Never Look Back is a modern retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Now set in the Bronx with a multicultural cast and bumping soundtrack filled with bachata, reggaeton, salsa, and hip-hop, the film is a blend of genres: fantasy, horror, and romance.

Eugenio Derbez and Ben Odell will produce for 3Pas Studios, with Jordan Rubio overseeing the project for the company. Chart-topping singer-songwriter Romeo Santos and Artie Pabon will serve as exec producers and music supervisors through the former’s Chimbi Productions. Santos, who is known as the “King of Bachata,” will also have one of his original songs featured in the film.

Rivera is an award-winning writer who has also authored the young adult novels Dealing in Dreams, We Light Up The Sky, and The Education of Margot Sanchez. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Elle, Lenny Letter, Tin House, Nightmare Magazine, and Magazine for Fantasy & Science Fiction, among other outlets.

Fuentes previously directed and exec produced the pilot and second episode of Netflix’s Cursed, based on the illustrated novel by Frank Miller and Thomas Wheeler, and will make her feature directorial debut with an upcoming project from Amazon Studios and Scott Free Productions, based on the life of 2021 MacArthur Fellow, Dwayne Betts. Additional TV credits include episodes of the upcoming series The Old Man (FX) and Bosch: Legacy (IMDb TV), as well as Super Pumped, The Girl from Plainville, The Great, The Nevers, Bosch, Jane the Virgin, Shameless, Ray Donovan, The Deuce, The Chi, Jessica Jones, How to Get Away with Murder, This Is Us, Longmire, Snowfall, Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy, Pitch, Queen of the South, Pretty Little Liars, Madam Secretary, iZombie, Switched at Birth and The Fosters.

Upon graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Rothenberg’s first short, Bad Habits, premiered at the 2014 Cannes Short Film Corner. Her first feature screenplay, the YA thriller Swiped, was featured on the Black List. Rothenberg has also recently written on Netflix’s series Rebelde.

3Pas Studios, co-founded by Derbez and Odell, is the leading bi-lingual production company producing English and Spanish language content for global audiences. 3Pas recently upped their first-look English language film deal with Lionsgate and a first-look Spanish language content deal with Televisa Univision’s new streaming platform, ViX. Recent projects include the Apple TV+ series Acapulco, Prime Video’s De viaje con los Derbez and the Spanish-language version of LOL: Last One Laughing. Its upcoming rom-com The Valet, in which Derbez also stars, is slated to premiere on Hulu on May 20.

Fuentes is represented by UTA, Range Media Partners and Ziffren Brittenham; Rothenberg by WME; Rivera by UTA and Jabberwocky; Santos by UTA; and 3Pas Studios by CAA and attorney Behr Abramson.