Eva Longoria Cast in Live-Action ‘Dora the Explorer’ Movie

Desperate Housewives and Dog Days star Eva Longoria will play Eva, Dora’s mother, in the live-action Dora the Explorer movie. THR broke the news.

Longoria joins a cast that includes Isabela Moner (Transformers: The Last Knight) as the titular explorer and Micke Moreno (Escobar: Paradise Lost) as Diego. The live-action spin on the famed Nickelodeon animated series sees high school-aged Dora lead monkey best friend Boots and a rag tag group of teens on an adventure to rescue Dora’s lost parents and solve the puzzling mystery behind a lost Inca civilization.

Eugenio Derbez (Overboard), Temuera Morrison (Aquaman), Madeleine Madden (Tidelands), and Nicholas Coombe (Spy Kids: Mission Critical) co-star.

Paramount produces through its Paramount Players arm alongside Nickelodeon and Walden Media. The movie is now in production in Australia under director James Bobin (The Muppets, Alice Through the Looking Glass) from a script by Nicholas Stoller (Muppets Most Wanted, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie) Danielle Sanchez-Witzel (TV’s George Lopez, New Girl).

Five-time Transformers director Michael Bay denied involvement with the project last week following months-long reports Bay and his production company, Platinum Dunes, were behind the Dora the Explorer movie. “Bay or Platinum Dunes has nothing to do with the Dora movie,” said a spokesperson and webmaster for Bay. “It is being falsely reported in the press.”

Producers on Dora include Kristin Burr (Disney’s Christopher Robin), executive producers Julia Pistor (The Spiderwick Chronicles, A Series of Unfortunate Events) and Eugenio Derbez, and longtime Bobin associate, executive producer John G. Scotti (The Muppets, Alice Through the Looking Glass).

Longoria famously portrayed Gabrielle on eight seasons of hit ABC drama series Desperate Housewives. She recently appeared as Theresa alongside Derbez in Overboard and most recently co-starred in dog-centric family-friendly comedy Dog Days.

The live-action Dora is just one of many animated-to-live-action projects on Paramount’s slate: the studio is bringing young adult horror series Are You Afraid of the Dark? to the big screen and previously announced a half-live-action, half-CGI big screen Rugrats movie for 2020.

Dora the Explorer opens in theaters August 2, 2019.