Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut, the psychological thriller Blink Twice (in theaters this Friday), takes place almost entirely at one location: a private island owned by Slater King (portrayed by Channing Tatum), a supposedly reformed billionaire bad boy who’s still in the midst of rehabilitating his image. In reality, it’s Hacienda Temozon Sur, a 17th-century estate turned hotel in Mexico’s Yucatán region.
After a brief flirtation with King, Blink Twice’s main character Frida (Naomi Ackie) accepts the controversial tech mogul’s invitation to tag along on a group trip to the island. The picture-perfect romantic daydream unravels, revealing a nightmarish reality as the days wear on. “At first when I was writing the script I was picturing—because Slater is a tech billionaire—something a lot more modern,” Kravitz tells AD of the film, which she directed and co-wrote with E.T. Feigenbaum. “Then as we started to look at properties, I was very intrigued by having the backdrop of colonialism and kind of wanting the presence of the cycle of oppression as the backdrop of the story.”
Production designer Roberto Bonelli interpreted the hacienda setting as a choice that aligned with King’s desire to edit his image “from being a young yuppie into somebody who is more respected, more [culturally conscious], more cool, more likable,” he explains. A modern mansion might communicate the character’s extreme wealth, but Bonelli figured a hacienda would indicate King’s hope to be seen as more evolved and worldly—even if, to Kravitz’s point about colonialism, it’s all a façade.
