Blast From The Past: Jennifer Lopez to Make 'Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?

Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?" was a popular children's game show/educational program that aired on PBS from 1991 till 1995. (Funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the generous support of viewers like you!)


Created in response to an alarming National Geographic survey that found one out of every four Americans unable to locate the Soviet Union or the Pacific Ocean on a map, the show had kids/contestants answering trivia questions about basic geography in an elaborate quest to capture Carmen Sandiego, a highly elusive criminal.


While Jennifer Lopez's career was extant during the time the show was popular—she appeared on Fox's skit comedy show "In Living Color" from '91 till '93, and featured in the 1995 Wesley Snipes/Woody Harrelson action flick "Money Train"—she had yet to break out in any starring role. (Her first starring vehicle was 1997's "Selena," closely followed by
the cult horror flick "Anaconda" and the George Clooney/Steven Soderbergh classic "Out of Sight.") Still, it tickles the imagination to contemplate what a "Carmen Sandiego" movie might have looked like—starring Jennifer Lopez—had it entered production in 1996 or '97.



And all of this is not simply an exercise in nostalgia or creative speculation: Jennifer Lopez and Walden Media have reportedly joined forces to finally bring the story of "Carmen Sandiego" to the big screen. Do American school children still have trouble locating the Soviet Union on a map? (Probably. If memory serves, it's still the big purple one, although it's now labeled "Russia.") And what about the Pacific Ocean? (We hope not.)


Is there actually a story surrounding "Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?" Or is that a stupid question, facetious though it might have been, considering Hollywood is making movies out of story-less products like "Battleship" and "Ouija?" Would this project have been much more successful had it came about 15 years earlier? Or is the everlasting quest to accurately label a map one of those timeless things that just never goes out of style?