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Jack Black, Mike White, and Jared Hess are teaming on an untitled secret-identity wrestling film as a starring vehicle for Black. Inspired by a real life story, Black will play a Mexican priest who moonlights as a masked Lucha Libre wrestler to raise money to save an orphanage destined for closure. All the while, the priest must keep his identity hidden from the wrestling community and the church.
Naturally.
White and Hess will co-write with Hess directing. Black & White Productions and Nick Movies will produce the feature that will be distributed by Paramount Pictures with production targeted for this fall.
“I can’t think of two people I’d rather party with than Mike White and Jared Hess,” said Black, who recently completed production on Peter Jackson’s King Kong, adding, “I can’t wait to get down to Mexico.”
The project is the third collaboration between Jack Black and Mike White — the two played roommates in School of Rock, which White also wrote, and appeared together in Orange County, also written by White. White’s other writing credits include The Good Girl and Chuck & Buck, for which he received Independent Spirit Awards for Best Screenplay and Best First Feature, respectively.
This feature will mark Jared Hess’s first movie since his debut feature, Napoleon Dynamite, became an instant cult hit. Hess wrote and directed Napoleon Dynamite for roughly $400,000 and it has grossed nearly $45 million domestically.
More Mexican wrestling here!
