Jennifer Lopez's Nuyorican Productions creates television, film, and video content. The company's projects bring to center stage her Latino roots. Nuyorican Productions is fittingly based in Los Angeles, the U.S. center for film and television production.
Simon Fields, a longtime Hollywood producer, is her partner in Nuyorican Productions and serves as company president. In 1981 Fields founded Limelight, a company based in Los Angeles and London to produce music, video, commercial, and feature films. He remained at Limelight for 12 years. According to the Fields biography compiled for the cable television show South Beach Tow, one of their projects, he and Lopez met when they worked on the 2004 film Shall We Dance, which Fields produced and Lopez and Richard Gere starred in. Here are Nuyorican's current projects.
For the Univision Cable Network
¡Q'Viva! The Chosen. Recently Lopez and Marc Anthony, her ex, scouted talent for ¡Q'Viva! The Chosen, which will air on Univision beginning in early 2012, according to an October 19, 2011 Los Angeles Times article. Along with Anthony and Lopez, Jamie King will produce the show. King is a director and choreographer who has worked on video projects for Brittney Spears, Madonna, Avril Lavigne, Celine Dion, Ricky Martin, Shakira, and others.
¡Q'Viva! will present Lopez, Anthony, and King traveling to 21 Latin American countries in search of musicians, singers, dancers, and artists. They will bring selected performers to Hollywood to participate in a talent show. According to the article "Jennifer Lopez Arrives in Lima Seeking Out Talent for ¡Q'Viva!" that appeared on the Website "Fox News Latino" on December 5, 2011, the show will be taped in English, Spanish, and Portuguese and aired weekly. Fox News Latino also noted that shortly before Lopez had arrived in South America with twins Emme and Max, Anthony, their father, had been in Mexico scouting for the show.
Other Cable Television Projects
Big Easy Justice. Spike, the U. S. cable network, has picked up the show, a joint production of Nuyorican Productions, Al Roker Entertainment (ARE), CRM Entertainment, and Bodega Pictures, according to Daily Variety. To begin airing in February 2012, this show spotlights the life of an actual bounty hunter working in New Orleans. Spike has ordered 10 shows.
South Beach Tow. This reality series centers around the family - owned Tremont Towing business. Set in Miami, the truTV cable network has picked it up for a second season.
For Network Television
Untitled Comedy. MTV has bought a comedy about a Latina that Nuyorican Productions will produce in association with Benny Medina, Lopez's manager. The premise of the show is that Lina Molina, a graduate of NYU (New York University) , moves back to Texas from New York to live with her zany Mexican family because she's been hard hit by the economic downturn. Grace Parra will write the script. Parra, who graduated from Columbia University, is a native of Texas. She has written for the TBS television show Glory Daze (2010) and the Disney Channel series Jonas L. A. She has also written for the ABC television show Work It, which is scheduled to premiere in January 2012.
Untitled Show. The production company has hired Silvio Horta, the creator of ABC's Ugly Betty to pen a comedic drama about three Latinas who are sisters. It will air on the Fox network.
For Tweens and Teens
Tiger Beat Entertainment. In association with the Believe Entertainment Group, a digital entertainment company based in New York, and Cambio, a social media and entertainment platform for teens and young adults, Nuyorican Productions will begin a digital video series titled Tiger Beat Entertainment. The series will feature entertainment news and lifestyle trends. The teen magazine Tiger Beat will be the inspiration for much of the content for the series.
Sweet Little 15. This will be about the life of a Mexican teenager as she prepares for her Quinceanera, the elaborate party given for Latino girls when they reach15 years of age.
Amigas Sweet 15 Club. Five Miami teens who run a Quinceanera business will be the focus of this show. Books for young adults based on this idea have been written by Veronica Chambers. Fifteen Candles and "Quinceanera Means Sweet 15" are among the titles in the book series written by Chambers. The series has come to be known as the Amigas or Amigas Sweet 15 Club series.
Film
Taming Ben Taylor. In this romantic comedy for 20th Century FOX. Lopez will star as a successful real estate agent who woos a craggy vintner.
The year 2012 promises to be a revealing one for Nuyorican Productions.
Sources:
- "Grace Parra." (Biography). reallylatemorningshow.com. Accessed 9 December 2011.
- "Jennifer Lopez Through Her Company Nuyorican Productions & Believe Entertainment Group Announce New Youth Digital Series Tiger Beat Entertainment." PR Newswire. September 30, 2011.
- Lopez, Lindsey Hunter. "MTV Buys J. Lo's New Show." CNN Wire. November 2, 2011.
- Rose, Lacey. "TruTV Orders More Episodes of Jennifer Lopez's South Beach Tow." Hollywood Reporter. August 30, 2011.
- Thielman, Sam. "Spike Veers Off - Script." Daily Variety. August 11, 2011.
Linda N. Riggins - I have written freelance articles for Victorian Homes,Catholic Digest, the Old Farmer's Almanac, Fine Homebuilding, the Christian Science ...
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