time a development executive at Universal Pictures, called Marin, whom he had known from having previously worked at Columbia Pictures, where Cheech & Chong had made the films Nice Dreams and Things Are Tough All Over. Price suggested that the song would make a good film, but without Tommy Chong's involvement. With the deterioration of Marin's comedy partnership with Chong, Marin signed a contract with Universal to write, direct and star in Born in East L.A. Production commenced in Tijuana, Mexico, where the crew faced difficulty filming from the Mexican government. Actor Tony Plana (Feo) described Cheech Marin as a collaborative director, saying, "He was open to ideas, and finding the socially relevant insight into what we were doing, as well as finding the comedy." Marin and Plana worked together on developing the character, with Plana stating, "At the time, we had a couple of religious scandals going on, such as Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart — preachers who sinned publicly. We wanted to satirize them a little bit. We turned Feo into a guy who extorts money in the name of Jesus." Plana also improvised much of his dialogue, including "You don’t have to thank me, you just have to pay me." Also improvised was the scene with Marin standing outside the bar; the people that walked past him, Marin claims, were not extras, and their reactions were real. During shooting, the film's producer, Peter MacGregor-Scott, was interviewed by a Mexican radio station, where he called for extras to come to the set to appear in the movie, where they would receive American scale pay, lunch and transportation paid for by the production. Release Between the greenlighting and production of Born in East L.A., Frank Price was fired by Universal due to the failure of Howard the Duck, which was blamed on Price. As a result of Price's departure from the studio, Universal chose to spend little money publicizing Born in East L.A., as Price was the only executive who supported the project. Ultimately, according to Marin, the film was the second-highest grossing release in its opening week. The film also increased Marin's popularity among the Latino community. However, the movie dropped by 40% in its second week at the box office. Still, Born in East L.A. proved to be a financial success. During release, Marin traveled to Havana, Cuba to present the film as an official entry at