Nexflix and Univision have announced a new series based on the notorious leader of the Sinaloa cartel. But his lawyers said he would sue if the producers didn't receive permission - adding they're open to negotiations.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Blackwell
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Lawyers representing Joaquin Guzman, commonly known as "El Chapo," on Thursday threatened to sue online streaming site Netflix and Spanish-language broadcaster Univision if they air a planned series based on the Mexican drug lord's life.
"Mr. Guzman isn't dead. He isn't a personality in the public domain. He's alive. He has to grant them the rights (to his story). We could sue them because they don't have authorization for a series or a movie," Mexican lawyer Andres Granados told Mexican radio network Formula.
"He has told us that if they already have this project, we can negotiate with them, so it doesn't go to waste and we don't wear ourselves out with a lawsuit. But as of today, they have not approached us," the drug lord's lawyer added.
Show set for release next year
The comments come after Netflix and Univision announced earlier this month that they will co-produce a "boundary-breaking drama series" based on El Chapo's life. The show will be released exclusively on Netflix in 2017, according to the statement.
Mexican authorities arrested the leader of the notorious Sinaloa cartel in January after he escaped from a high-security prison in July, marking the second time he fled a detention facility in the country.
His recapture was largely blamed on a meeting between El Chapo, Mexican actress Kate del Castillo and US actor Sean Penn, which led police to the drug lord's residence.
Meanwhile, the Mexican government approved his extradition to the US last week , where he is wanted by federal prosecutors in several cities, including Miami and New York, for drug trafficking, homicide and money laundering.
Spectacular prison breaks
Mexican drug baron "Shorty" Guzman is not the first prisoner to want to escape the thick walls, bars, guards and search lights of jail. Here are some of the most spectacular, if not always successful, prison breaks.
Image: Getty Images/New York State Governor's Office/D. McGee
Maximum security in Mexico
In July 2015, Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman escaped the Altiplano prison through a tunnel under his cell's shower - the second time in 14 years that he managed to flee a maximum-security prison. Guards discovered a deep hole with a ladder that led to a tunnel that in turn led to a building on a hill surrounded by pastures.
Image: Reuters/PGR/Attorney General's Office
Nice try
Not as clever as Guzman: In 2011, the wife of inmate Juan Ramirez Tijerina visited her husband in a Mexican prison, where he was serving a sentence for illegal weapons possession. She brought along a large suitcase she planned to lug him out with again. Prison guards, however, found the young man inside - curled up inside in the fetal position.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Sspqr
H-Block 7
In 1983, 38 Irish Republican Army (IRA) inmates broke out of The Maze, considered to be one of Europe's most escape-proof prisons. The Maze was the main prison in Northern Ireland for sentenced republican and loyalist paramilitaries. The inmates used smuggled guns and knives to overpower staff, and hijacked a kitchen van to drive to the main gate, and out of the compound.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Mcerlane
The Alcatraz escape
With the help of sharpened spoons and an improvised drill, three bank robbers managed to burrow their way out of their cells in Alcatraz high security prison in the San Francisco Bay in 1962. To fool the prison guards at bay, the trio placed dummy heads in their beds. Once they were out, they used an inflatable raft made out of raincoats - and vanished.
Image: imago/Kai Koehler
Daring flight
It sounds like a script for Hollywood blockbuster: Pascal Payet twice used helicopters for his dramatic prison breaks. In 2001, the convicted murderer fled from a prison in a French village using a hijacked helicopter. In 2007, he again used a helicopter for a get-away. Previously, he had helped organize the escape of three captives who had been in jail with him - again using a helicopter.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/B. Horvat
Most wanted fugitive
Awaiting trial, serial killer Theodore Robert Bundy escaped from a county law library by jumping from a window. Re-arrested and sent to jail in Colorado, Bundy lost 30 pounds so he could escape again through a small light fixture hole in the cell ceiling. Bundy spread terror across the US, killing numerous women between January 1974 and 1978, when he was finally recaptured and sentenced to death.
Image: picture-alliance/AP
An Easter escape
Inmate Walter Stürm, imprisoned for stealing offenses, left a smug note in his cell after his get-away from a Swiss prison in 1981. "Off hunting Easter eggs," the note read. Stürm had sawed through the bars on his window, let himself down to the ground to the prison yard and fled to freedom by using a ladder. It was his third prison break.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Busting out
In June 2015, two convicted murderers, David Sweat and Richard Matt, broke out of a maximum-security prison in upstate New York, cutting holes in the walls of their adjoining cells, and working their way through a maze of catwalks and pipes to emerge from a manhole. The duo did a practice run the night before the escape. Matt was later killed by police, while Sweat was recaptured, badly injured.
Image: Getty Images/New York State Governor's Office/D. McGee
