Jennifer Lopez has landed a new film role…

JLo is playing one of the most powerful female drug lords of all time...

Jennifer Lopez has announced an exciting and unexpected new film project, playing one of the most powerful female drug lords of all time.

Cast as Griselda Blanco, the notorious female kingpin known as The Cocaine Godmother, JLo will also be an executive producer on the TV movie, which is expected to air on HBO at the end of next year.

‘I’ve been fascinated by the life of this corrupt and complicated woman for many years,’ says Jennifer of the role. ‘The idea of teaming with HBO felt like the perfect fit for finally bringing Griselda’s story to life.’

Griselda Blanco was responsible for transforming America’s drug trade during the Seventies and Eighties, running a huge cartel operation that trafficked over 300kg of cocaine every month in its peak. She became a multimillionaire, shot her first two husbands, and killed dozens of others to keep her place as the most powerful dealer in Miami.

Born in Cartagena, Columbia, she ran away from home at the age of 14 after her mother’s boyfriend raped her. She married her first husband at 20 and had her first three children, and later had her fourth son with a lover, Darío Sepúlveda, in 1983. When Sepúlveda kidnapped their child after a custody disagreement, she had him assassinated.

In 1985 she was finally arrested and served a decade in prison in the US, before being released to live a ‘quiet life’ in Medellín, Columbia in 2004. In 2012, aged 69, she was murdered in a drive by shooting near her home.

Alex Pettyfer will be a co-executive producer on the TV movie, but it’s not yet known if the actor will also star in the movie. We're already intrigued by this one, and can't wait to see who else joins the cast.