Walmart Blesses Sarah DiLeo

Sarah DiLeo, a second-year student in the UCLA Producers Program, has secured financing for her feature project, “Bless Me, Ultima,” an adaptation of a novel by Rudolfo Anaya. “Daily Variety” reports that

Wal-Mart heiress Christy Walton will finance and exec produce her first feature film, an adaptation of the Rudolfo Anaya novel “Bless Me, Ultima.”

Carl Franklin is set to write and direct the film, and Monkey Hill Films’ Sarah DiLeo will produce with Mark Johnson and his Gran Via Prods. as well as Jesse B. Franklin, who’ll produce through Monarch Pictures.

Walton, the widow of the late John Walton (a son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton), is one of the wealthiest women in America; Forbes estimated her worth at $23.2 billion last year. Walton does not aspire to become a player in the movie business, though. In fact, her ambitions end with Anaya’s novel, and she established Tenaja Prods. as a single-purpose entity to finance the one film.

The novel is the turbulent coming-of-age story of Antonio, a youth growing up in New Mexico during WWII. He develops a relationship with Ultima, an elderly medicine woman who helps the young man navigate the battle between good and evil that rages in his village.

…

Walton’s quest to make the movie goes back to 2004, when she connected with DiLeo over a shared passion for the book. DiLeo then began courting Anaya, who initially rebuffed the overtures but finally relented when the producer crashed his vacation in La Paz, Mexico. She then enlisted Johnson, the “Chronicles of Narnia” producer who plugged in Franklin.

Related Program

Keywords

"sarah dileo" 

Share This

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Delicious

Permalink