'Miss Bala': What We Know Before the Release

Premise

When her best friend goes missing during a trip to a Mexico City nightclub, Gloria (Gina Rodriguez) goes looking for her only to find herself kidnapped and forced to become a drug mule. When she tries to escape, she becomes a pawn in a deadly game between the drug dealing kidnappers and the American government is eager to use her as an asset to take down a cartel.

Starring

Rising superstar Gina Rodriguez shot to fame as the titular "Jane" on the hit CW series, Jane the Virgin. With her success as Jane, Rodriguez has made a slow but steady push into feature films. Most of her film resume is in animation where she voiced characters for Ferdinand, The Star, and Small Foot. In the live action world, Rodriguez made a few indies and a few bit parts. Her first major role came in director Peter Berg’s Deepwater Horizon in 2016.

Bigger than that, however, was Rodriguez’s full-fledged supporting role in 2018 deeply underrated masterpiece Annihilation. That role found Rodriguez showing off her tough girl side as she plays Anya, an Army Paramedic. Anya is quick on the trigger and ready for a fight, but her paranoia eventually gets the best of her. It’s a full-bodied performance from Rodriguez who easily sheds her nice girl Jane the Virgin persona, more in favor of a muscled up military look that completes her remarkable transformation.

Co-starring in Miss Bala is Broadway actor Ismael Cruz Cordova. Cordova plays Lino, a drug dealer who forces Gloria into the drug game. Cordova has had a fascinating path to Miss Bala having gotten his big break playing Mando in Sesame Street. From there, Cordova moved on to Broadway before landing a role on the Showtime series Ray Donovan—the place where most fans might recognize him.

The only other well known actor in the cast of Miss Bala is Anthony Mackie, AKA Falcon from The Avengers. Mackie plays hard nosed DEA Agent who pushes Gloria to stay in the cartel’s good graces after picking her up as seemingly just another young, attractive drug mule. He threatens to put Gloria in jail if she doesn’t help him garner evidence against the cartel.

Director

Miss Bala was directed by Catherine Hardwicke, a well-known name in both the indie film world and the mainstream feature world. Hardwicke became an indie movie darling with her Sundance Film Festival hit Thirteen in 2003. She followed that with the slightly less beloved, but equally successful, Lords of Dogtown in 2005. It wasn’t however, until she stepped into the directorial mainstream in 2008 by directing the first film in the Twilight saga that Hardwicke became a big name in Hollywood.

However, a clash with the producers of Twilight caused Hardwicke to walk away from the lucrative franchise immediately following the release of the first film. Still having blockbuster success under her belt, however, Hardwicke took another swing at the mainstream with 2011’s Red Riding Hood. That film, starring Amanda Seyfried as the title character Little Red Riding Hood, was a significant failure and soured Hardwicke’s taste for big studio movies.

After Red Riding Hood, Hardwicke moved back to the indies with a rock and roll themed erotic thriller called Plush that went nowhere at the box office. Hardwicke has also detoured into television where she served as an executive producer on a short-lived legal drama called Reckless and has worked as a director for hire on episodes of the hit drama series This Is Us. Miss Bala is a return to mainstream filmmaking for Hardwicke.

Not to Be Confused with the 2011 Film

Miss Bala 2019 is a remake of a Mexican feature film released in 2011. That film starred Stephanie Sigman in the lead role of the kidnapped girl, a role that earned her acclaim at the 2011 Canne Film Festival. Though the film earned 89 percent positive reviews from RottenTomatoes, director Gerardo Naranjo hasn’t had much success following up on it. Naranjo has since recorded a few spare TV credits.

Miss Bala, for those who don't speak Spanish, translates to "Miss Bullet." The title refers to the transition Gloria/Laura in the Mexican original must make from makeup artist to gun toting, revenge seeking vigilante. She has to learn to be good with a gun before she can start to fight back against the opposing sides of the drug war.

Box Office Prospects

Miss Bala is a bit of a tough sell for fickle January audiences, but Sony isn’t likely all that concerned about the film’s performance at the American box office. With Rodriguez and the international, action, and suspense story, they are aiming for the worldwide audience with Miss Bala. A miniscule 15 million dollar budget means the film would have to fail spectacularly in order to not turn a profit.