After a fierce bidding war, Blumhouse will team up with the New York Times to produce a project about Azam Ahmed’s gripping story on Miriam Rodriguez, the Mexican mother who tracked down the crew that abducted and murdered her daughter in 2014.
Miriam Rodriguez helped imprison 10 members of the local cartel in the Northern town of San Fernando, Mexico. She was shot and killed in front of her home on Mother’s Day, 2017.
Caitlin Roper is producing for the New York Times alongside Ahmed, and Jason Blum is producing for Blumhouse.
Ahmed’s story, titled “She Stalked Her Daughter’s Killers Across Mexico, One by One,” incited a bidding war immediately after it was published on Dec. 13, with multiple production companies and studios chasing the screen rights. It is unclear whether Blumhouse’s project will be adapted into a feature film or a limited series.
Ahmed has been the Times’ bureau chief for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean since 2015. His article told the story of Miriam Rodriguez, who took matters into her own hands after her 20-year-old daughter, Karen, was kidnapped in 2014. After numerous ransom demands, Karen never returned, and with no help from the authorities, Rodriguez assumed different identities and used disguises to track down the kidnappers. Her efforts paid off and led to the capture of 10 members of the local cartel. Rodriguez’s story in the Times was juxtaposed with another story about the kidnapping of a 14-year-old boy in the same town that happened earlier this year.
Anonymous Content repped the interests and rights for film and television for the New York Times’ journalism and brokered the deal with Blumhouse. Anonymous Content recently sold the rights to the New York Times Magazine’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “The 1619 Project,” which is currently set up at Lionsgate with Oprah Winfrey producing.