Madonna "announced her plans to star in a film based on Frida's life", and Robert De Niro's Tribeca Productions reportedly "envisioned a joint biography of Rivera and Kahlo." In the spring of 1991, director Luis Valdez began production on a New Line feature about Frida Kahlo starring Laura San Giacomo in the lead. San Giacomo's casting received objections due to her non-Hispanic ethnicity, and New Line complied with the protesters' demands, and left the then-titled "Frida and Diego" in August 1992 citing finances. Hardin's project found itself swamped by similar ones:  When I first tried to sell the project ... there was no interest because nobody had heard of Frida. A few years later, I heard the exact oppositethat there were too many Frida projects in development, and nobody wanted mine. Valdez was contacted early on by thethen unknown in the U.S.Salma Hayek, who sent "her [promo] reel to the director and phoned his office", but was ultimately told she was then too young for the role. By 1993, Valdez had retitled the film "The Two Fridas" with San Giacomo and Ofelia Medina both playing the portraitist. Raúl Juliá was cast as Diego Rivera, but his death further delayed the movie. At the same time, Hardin approached HBO, and with "rising young development executive and producer" Lizz Speed (a former assistant to Sherry Lansing) intended to make a television movie, hopeful that Brian Gibson (director of ""What's Love Got to Do With It", the story of Tina Turner" and "The Josephine Baker Story") would direct. Casting difficulties proved insurmountable, but Speed joined Hardin in advocating the project, and after four years in development, the two took the project from HBO to Trimark and producer Jay Polstein (with assistant Darlene Caamaño). At Trimark, Salma Hayek became interested in the role, having "been fascinated by Kahlo's work from the time she was 13 or 14"although not immediately a fan:  Hayek was so determined to play the role that she sought out Dolores Olmedo Patino, longtime-lover of Diego Rivera, and (after his death) administrator to the rights of Frida and Rivera's art, which Rivera had "willed ... to the Mexican people", bequeath[ing] the trust to Olmedo.