Netflix's 'Carmen Sandiego' Film Brings on Writer

Netflix's Carmen Sandiego movie could be as funny as Game Night, since the streaming giant hired writer Mark Perez to write the Gina Rodriguez-starring movie.

Deadline reported that Perez will write the new movie, as his follow-up to Game Night, which was directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein. The New Line comedy was a hit with critics and grossed $117 million worldwide. Goldstein also wrote Accepted (2002) and The Country Bears (2002).

The movie is just one part of Netflix's "all-in" approach to the Carmen Sandiego brand, which it acquired the live-action film rights to in March. However, Netflix announced plans for an animated series almost a year earlier, in April 2017.

Rodriguez signed on to star in the film, and will also voice the title character in an animated series to be released in 2019. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which owns the property, will also publish a new line of books.

Rodriguez is producing the Carmen Sandiego movie under her I Can And I Will banner, with Kevin Misher and Caroline Fraser. The executive producer is Andy Berman of Misher Films. Berman also worked with Rodriquez on Miss Bala, an English-language adaptation of a 2011 Mexican film that comes out on Jan. 25, 2019.

The animated series will also star Finn Wolfard, who plays Mike Wheeler on Stranger Things. He was cast as Carmen's accomplice, Player, in April.

The Carmen Sandiego franchise launched in the 1980s as a series of educational computer games, where children learned geography as they followed the mysterious thief around the world to find out Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?. Carmen later appeared in books, comics and television shows. PBS aired Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? from 1991 to 1995 and won six Daytime Emmys.

Netflix has been successful with other reboots of educational programs. The platform is home to new episodes of The Magic School Bus, which stars Saturday Night Live's Kate McKinnon as Ms. Frizzle. Netflix also brought Bill Nye The Science Guy for Bill Nye Saves The World.

As for Rodriguez, she has been a rising star in Hollywood since landing her Golden Globe-winning role on The CW's Jane The Virgin. She also recently starred opposite Natalie Portman in the acclaimed sci-fi movie Annihilation and appeared in an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The upcoming fifth season of Jane The Virgin will be its last.