The story of the father of Mexico’s first Mestizo family is headed to the big screen…

Roland Emmerich’s Centropolis Entertainment has acquired the screen rights to John Coe Robbins’ historical novel Maya Lord.‎

The novel tells the fact-based story of Gonzalo Guerrero, who was shipwrecked in a violent storm in 1511, and found himself cast away on an unknown shore in the New World. He and his Spaniard shipmates were enslaved by a Mayan tribe.

With no hope of escape, the brilliant and pragmatic adventurer searches for a way to advance in a strange new culture. As one of the captives eventually joins Hernán Cortés in the conquest of Mexico, Gonzalo adopts Mayan ways and rises to become a major warlord, defending the Mayan people against Cortes and other Spanish conquistadors.

Guerrero, who married the daughter of a Maya chieftain, is generally regarded in Mexico as the father of the first Mestizo family.

Emmerich has been passionate about Guerrero’s story for years.