Sergio Sanchez Suarez will follow up his debut feature — the $4.5m Mexican historical melodrama Tequila — with a thriller called The Guardian.

He plans to shoot the new film in the autumn, in the Mexican Carribean including locales such as Cancun. The story is about three reserve rangers whose friendship is torn apart after they discover hidden treasure in a cave. “It’s like The Descent meets The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” Suarez told Screen at last week’s Aruba International Film Festival.

The $2.5m project will shoot in the English language.

Suarez’s Mexico City-based is also developing his bullfighting period drama, eyed for a shoot in Spain in 2013; and Insert Coin, a road movie about a young boy travelling across the US and Mexico to become a gaming champion to raise money for his mother’s surgery.

Meanwhile, Tequila will be released in September in Mexico, on a 250-300 print release from Universal and Quality Films. Shoreline is handling international sales and had a private screening for buyers in Cannes.

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