Chris & Paul Weitz To Direct ‘The Spanish Dracula;’ Love Story Of Their Mexican Silent Film Actress Grandmother Lupita Tovar & Storied Universal Exec Paul Kohner
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz will co-write and co-direct Spanish Dracula, the true story about how silent film star and Mexican actress Lupita Tovar found a second wind starring in Spanish language versions of Hollywood films like the Universal classic Dracula.
The Weitz Brothers are her grandsons, and they will produce through Depth of Field, along with Pancho Kohner. He is their uncle and author of The Sweetheart of Mexico, a memoir he helped his mother write about her most fascinating life.Tovar, who moved from Mexico to Hollywood, would go on to become a wildly successful actress back home where she was known as The Mexican Rose.
Their grandfather is Paul Kohner, Universal Pictures chief Carl Laemmle’s right hand man who ran the studio’s international film production business.
Falling head over heels in love with Tovar — as did many others including John Huston and a Mexican general, both of whom she had to escape from — Kohner created opportunities for Tovar, initially because he was in love with her and didn’t want her to return to Mexico when talkies replaced silent films in 1929 and work evaporated for everyone with an accent.
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