Mendes Film Crew Flees Mexican Violence

A Hollywood film crew prepping to shoot in Mexico has high-tailed it back to the US after receiving death threats, the Independent reports. The film, an adaptation of a novel about a cocaine smuggler, was set to star Eva Mendes, Josh Hartnett, and Ben Kingsley on Mexico's northern coast, a region ravaged by drug wars. "It just wasn't possible," said director Jonathan Jakubowicz. "The safety of my family and my team comes first."

The news may threaten future filming in Mexico and deal a blow to the country’s fragile economy. Other film productions have fled the nation, including an Antonio Banderas/Jennifer Lopez project in 2005 and a Paramount film last year called El Traspatio—whose star found a slaughtered lamb at her door. "The world should pray for peace in Mexico," Jakubowicz said. (More drug cartel stories.)