After a delay, Ingobernable, Netflix‘s new original series toplined by Mexican TV star Kate del Castillo, is heading to production with a twist. The show, whose star was a key player in the El Chapo saga, was originally slated to film in Mexico. It will now shoot in the U.S., I have learned. According to Spanish-language reports citing del Castillo’s personal trainer, Ingobernable is expected to film in San Diego.
Del Castillo, who recently became an U.S. citizen, lives in California and told ABC News in March that she is afraid to go to Mexico for fear of being arrested and prosecuted. Del Castillo has been under scrutiny by the Mexican government over her connection to notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, which led to her and actor Sean Penn’s infamous secret meeting with El Chapo while he was on the run following his daring escape from a Mexican prison.
“It’s a telenovela within a telenovela. It’s a strange turn of events for sure,” Netflix chief content officer Sarandos said at the height of the controversy in January, reaffirming the company’s commitment to film the series this year. (Ingobernable — picked up to series in summer 2015, long before del Castillo’s El Chapo ties were revealed — was originally slated to begin shooting in early 2016.) “It’s very complicated, but so far, so good,” he said.
In Ingobernable, which has an order for 20 episodes, Del Castillo will play Irene Urzua, the wife of Mexico’s president. A woman with a strong personality, conviction and clear ideas, Urzua is capable of “creating a president, leaving a president and killing a president.”
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