Catherine Zeta Jones to Star in New Lifetime Movie COCAINE GODMOTHER

Lifetime has greenlit the original movie, COCAINE GODMOTHER, starring Academy Award and Tony Award-winning actress Catherine Zeta-Jones and directed by Academy Award-Winning Cinematographer Guillermo Navarro. Zeta-Jones won the Oscar and BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for her powerful role in Rob Marshall's Oscar winning film, Chicago, and won the Tony for her stunning performance in Sondheim's A Little Night Music. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe for her fierce portrayal of a drug lord's wife in the critically acclaimed Steven Soderbergh feature, Traffic. Cocaine Godmother is based on the life of drug lord Griselda Blanco, who was a pioneer in the Miami-based cocaine trade. The crime drama will go into production this year and premiere in 2018 on Lifetime.

Cocaine Godmother explores the complicated life of Griselda Blanco, who, at just 17, made her way to the U.S. with a fake passport with her first husband Carlos. Living in Queens with her three sons, Griselda became enticed by the money the drug world offered, and quickly became embroiled with local drug runners. Griselda masterminded the use of beautiful women, the elderly and children as the mules and created false-bottom suitcases to smuggle cocaine from Colombia. With money rolling in, her sons abandoned school and entered THE FAMILY business instead. A move to Miami would further expand Griselda's empire, and lead to the death of her second husband Alberto, giving the rise to her nickname, The Black Widow. Her willingness to use violence against her Miami competitors, led her rivals to make repeated unsuccessful attempts to kill her. In order to protect her youngest son with third husband Dario, Griselda moved to California where she was later arrested by the DEA and sentenced to a decade in jail. The case against her collapsed and upon her release, she was deported to Colombia, where she was ultimately gunned down in 2012. In her lifetime, Griselda's drug distribution network spanned across the United States and she was suspected of ordering over 200 murders.

Cocaine Godmother is produced by Asylum Entertainment for Lifetime with Emmy Award-winning Steven Michaels, Jonathan Koch (The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe), Joan Harrison (Manson's Lost Girls) and Alisa Tager (Enemy at the Gates) executive producing. Guillermo Navarro (Pan's Labrynth, Narcos) will direct from a script written by David McKenna (American History X).

A+E Networks holds worldwide distribution rights for Cocaine Godmother.

ABOUT ASYLUM ENTERTAINMENT Asylum Entertainment has produced a diverse slate of television long-form, feature films, gritty documentaries and unscripted series - thousands of hours of programming in its 14 years. Notable productions include the Emmy-winning miniseries The Kennedys, and Ring of Fire, which also received multiple Emmy nods. Asylum received critical acclaim for its feature documentary Happy Valley, about the Penn State sex scandal, and for the Lifetime film, Manson's Lost Girls. Asylum's factual series include ESPN's Emmy-winning series 30 FOR 30 and National Geographic's Science anthology, Breakthrough. Asylum is owned by feature film studio Legendary Entertainment (Jurassic World).

ABOUT LIFETIME Lifetime is a premier entertainment destination for women dedicated to offering the highest quality original programming spanning scripted series, non-fiction series and movies. The critically acclaimed UnREAL, Project Runway, Dance Moms, Bring It!, THE RAP GAME and Little Women franchises anchor the network's programming, in addition to its over 25 original movies annually that continue to define the TV movie genre. In 2015, Lifetime launched Broad Focus, a major global initiative dedicated to supporting and hiring female directors, writers and producers to make its content which totals over 450 original hours. Lifetime's Fempire positions the network as a curator of feminist content and conversations, as well as a place where women connect, learn and are entertained. Lifetime Television(R), LMN(R), Lifetime Real Women(R) and Lifetime Digital(TM) are part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, LLC, a subsidiary of A+E Networks. A+E Networks is a joint venture of the Disney-ABC Television Group and Hearst Corporation.

Photo Credit: Jennifer Broski