The late Oscar “Zeta” Acosta’s life story will be getting the Hollywood treatment…
Half-Mexican American television writer/producer Natalie Chaidez has acquired the film and television rights to the late Chicano attorney, politician, novelist and activist’s novels Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo and The Revolt of the Cockroach People.
She will executive produce and supervise writing for an upcoming television series.
Chaidez is developing the project with Joe Loya and Phillip Rodriguez.
Acosta was a Mexican American activist in the Chicano Civil Rights Movement who disappeared in Mexico in 1974, a year after his second novel The Revolt of the Cockroach People was released and is presumed dead. He is also famously known for his friendship with Hunter S. Thomson, who characterized Acosta as Samoan attorney Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
“Oscar Zeta Acosta has been a passion of mine since I first encountered his books in an East LA library. Acosta’s story is one of the deepest and cinematic stories in the Latinx canon. I’m thrilled to bring his story to life,” Chaidez told Deadline in an exclusive statement.
The televison series will feature elements from both of his published novels, the first is loosely based on his early years, and the second tells real stories from his later years during the Chicano movement while changing the identities of those involved. It’s currently being shopped around to networks and streamers.
Chaidez is currently co-showrunner on the second season of HBO Max’s The Flight Attendant alongside Steve Yockey currently in production. She was previously an executive producer and writer on USA Network’s Queen of the South and served as creator and executive producer of the Syfy drama Hunters.
