'Hollywood Animal' to do Guadalupe movie

In a news story that contained, not one, but two groan-inducing puns, the Hollywood Reporter announced last week that screenwriter and director Joe Eszterhas is planning a movie on Our Lady of Guadalupe."He may have sanded his jagged edge, but Joe Eszterhas still, apparently, has the basic instinct," the story joked, in reference to two of Eszterhas' movies, "Jagged Edge" and "Basic Instinct."

Like I said, groan.

The Hungarian-born Eszterhas abandoned the sex, drugs and greed of Hollywood for a quiet family life in Ohio and a return to his Catholic faith after a bout with throat cancer a few years ago. He describes his former life in his first memoir, Hollywood Animal, and his conversion in his second, Crossbearer.

Eszterhas called the new project as "a labor of love" and that he had been "hoping for some time to write a film that is both entertaining and inspiring."

The untitled Guadalupe movie will be produced by Mpower Pictures, founded by Mel Gibson's former partner Steve McEveety. "Guadalupe changed the course of history for the indigenous peoples of Mexico," McEveety told the Reporter. "It had a transformative effect on their culture, and especially their faith."

No "green light" (as they say in Hollywood, not Ohio) on the project yet, so there is no release date. May I suggest December 12?