Justin Baldoni is producing his first film since settling his legal battle with Blake Lively, teaming with former “Jane the Virgin” co-star Gina Rodriguez on her directorial debut, a boxing drama called “House of Guerrero.” Baldoni announced the news on Instagram this week, posting a video from set showing him hugging Rodriguez on the first day of filming.
Rodriguez wrote the story with screenwriter Bernardo Cubría, who also penned the script, and the film follows a once-promising young boxer who gets one final chance to return to the ring and reclaim the life he thought he’d lost. Producers first floated a version of the project back in 2021, when boxer Ryan Garcia had been attached to star, though that iteration never came together.
The producing team spans several companies: Scott Budnick and Ameet Shukla for 1Community, Molly Breeskin for Rodriguez’s I Can And I Will Productions, and Baldoni and Andrew Calof for his Wayfarer Studios. Wayfarer, 1Community, HarbourView Media Group and Clare LoCicero are co-financing the movie, with tax credit financing coming from Three Point Capital, and UTA’s Independent Film Group is handling worldwide sales. Fight choreography will come from Clayton J. Barber, known for his work on “Black Panther” and “Creed,” alongside Eric Brown, who has choreographed for the “John Wick” and “Matrix” franchises.
Rodriguez has cast the project as personal. She said she has boxed since she could walk and wanted to draw out what the sport teaches about life while spotlighting Latino characters and families. Budnick framed the film as filling a gap in the genre, arguing that while Latino fighters have long shaped boxing, they have rarely anchored its biggest movies the way earlier generations got “Rocky” and today’s audiences get “Creed.”
For Baldoni, the reunion carries its own weight. He said this summer that he and his family were still healing from the legal fight with Lively over their 2024 film “It Ends With Us.” That case, which alleged harassment on set and a retaliatory smear campaign, ended in a settlement in May, two weeks before a scheduled trial, after a judge had already dismissed most of Lively’s claims. No cast has been announced for “House of Guerrero,” and the production remains in its early days on set.
