Mexican Action Powerhouse Durango Films Launches With a Netflix Universe to Build

The Mexican producer and director behind Counterattack — a film that spent 12 weeks on Netflix's Global Top 10 for non-English-language films and racked up 66.9 million total views — have launched their own production outfit, Durango Films. Producer Francisco González Compeán and director Chava Cartas (the stage name of Salvador Cartas Martínez) announced the new company as their next film, Facing El Chapo, prepares to debut worldwide on Netflix on 21 August 2026. Variety

Counterattack, directed by Cartas and produced by González Compeán's Draco Films, followed an elite group of Mexican soldiers targeted by the El Enjambre cartel after rescuing two kidnapped women. The film was based on an article by journalist Héctor de Mauleon and drew on the Murciélagos — the Special Forces Corps of the Mexican Army — as a reference point. Its cast, including Luis Alberti, Noé Hernández and Luis Curiel, trained with martial arts expert Fidel Cerda, who choreographed and supervised the fight sequences. Variety; El Universal

Netflix now wants to expand the Counterattack universe, according to Variety. Carolina Leconte, VP of Content for Netflix in Mexico, said the platform wants to take Mexican action movies "to the next level" with heroic characters at their centre. Variety

Facing El Chapo (Spanish title: La captura) is the first title under the new Durango Films banner. It chronicles the third and definitive capture of drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, following a federal police officer and his partner who make a routine traffic stop that puts them face to face with him. The film stars Alfonso Herrera and Noé Hernández, with Héctor Kotsifakis portraying Guzmán. Variety

The company's name is personal for both founders. González Compeán named it after Durango, his father's home state, where he remembered visiting the sets of John Wayne Westerns as a child. Cartas partly grew up in the same state and recalled visiting the sets of Sam Peckinpah films with his mother, who worked as a production coordinator. Variety

For viewers, the launch means a pipeline of Mexican action titles aimed squarely at a global streaming audience — with Netflix's own metrics confirming that audience already exists. The question now is whether Facing El Chapo can match or exceed the 66.9 million views that put Counterattack among Netflix's top eight most popular non-English-language films of all time.