Alfred Molina to Star in the Apple Original Films’ “The Instigators”

Alfred Molina is an instigator

The 69-year-old half-Spanish English actor has joined the cast of Apple Original Films’ The Instigatorsstarring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck.

Alfred MolinaMolina is among a roster of new cast additions that includes Ving Rhames and Ron Perlman.

The A-list ensemble also includes Hong Chau, Paul Walter Hauser and Michael Stuhlbarg. Doug Liman is directing.

The film follows two thieves who go on the run with the help of one of their therapists after a robbery goes awry. The script was penned by Chuck MacLean and Casey Affleck and was developed by Robinov, Graham and Casey Affleck.

Damon and Ben Affleck are producing through their banner Artists Equity, along with Jeff Robinov and John Graham through Studio 8 and Kevin Walsh through his The Walsh Company.

Molina is coming off reprising role as Doc Ock in Spider-Man: No Way Home and also was seen in the most recent season of FX’s Feud.

Showtime Moves Premiere Date for Benjamin Flores Jr.’s Drama Series “Your Honor” to January 2023

Benjamin Flores Jr. is heading back to court in the New Year…

The premiere date for the Showtime drama series Your Honor, starring the 20-year-old Afro-Latino actor, will now premiere on Sunday, January 13. Originally the second season was to start this upcoming December.

Benjamin Flores Jr.The 10-episode second season of the Bryan Cranston-led courtroom drama follows his character Michael Desiato, a New Orleans judge whose career is called into question when his teenage son kills the son of a crime boss in a hit-and-run.

Michael Stuhlbarg plays crime boss Jimmy Baxter, with Hope Davis, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Andrene Ward Hammond, Keith Machekanyanga, Lilli Kay, Jimi Stanton and Flores rounding out the cast.

Slated guest stars for season two include Rosie Perez, Margo Martindale and Amy Landecker.

CBS Studios produces the show in association with King Size Productions.

Benjamin Flores Jr. Upped to Series Regular on Showtime’s “Your Honor”

There’s more honor in Benjamin Flores Jr.’s future…

The 20-year-old Afro-Latino actor and rapper, whose stage name is Lil’ P-Nut, has been promoted to series regular for the upcoming second and finals season of Showtime’s “Your Honor.”

Benjamin Flores Jr.Flores was a recurring character during the series’ first season .

Bryan Cranston stars in the series as Michael Desiato, a respected New Orleans judge whose teenage son is involved in a hit-and-run that leads to a high-stakes game of lies, deceit and impossible choices.

As the only surviving son of Jimmy Baxter (Michael Stuhlbarg), Stanton’s Carlo Baxter is now more determined than ever to follow in his father’s criminal footsteps.  Stanton appeared in eight episodes in the first season.

Stanton plays Carlo Baxter. As the only surviving son of Jimmy Baxter (SAG Award winner Michael Stuhlbarg), Carlo is now more determined than ever to follow in his father’s criminal footsteps.

Stanton’s TV credits include Castle Rock and The Punisherwith such film appearances as Greyhound, Lost Girls and Detroit. 

Flores’ Eugene Jones’ attempt to avenge his brother’s death has created a new chain of events that threaten to create a war on the streets of New Orleans. Flores appeared in nine episodes in Season 1.

Currently in production, Your Honor is produced by CBS Studios in association with KingSize Productions, with Peter Moffat, Robert and Michelle King and Liz Glotzer executive producing.

Season 1, which was based on the Israeli series Kvodo created by Ron Ninio and Shlomo Mashiach, became the most-watched debut season on Showtime ever with 6.6 million weekly viewers.

Flores starred in Fear Street, Rim of the World, Transformers: The Last Knight, Game Shakers and The Haunted Hathaways, for which he earned the Imagen Award for Best Young Actor-Television.

Rosie Perez to Appear on Second & Final Season of Showtime’s “Your Honor”

Rosie Perez is embracing a new Honor

The 57-year-old Puerto Rican Oscar-nominated actress and activist will join Bryan Cranston in the upcoming second and final season of Showtime’s Your Honor, in a major recurring role.

Rosie PerezPerez will play Olivia Delmont, a charismatic assistant U.S Attorney who must manipulate and motivate an unwilling asset in order to bring down a crime organization in New Orleans.

In the series, Cranston stars as Michael Desiato, a respected New Orleans judge whose teenage son is involved in a hit-and-run that leads to a high-stakes game of lies, deceit and impossible choices.

The cast also includes Michael Stuhlbarg, Hope Davis, Hunter Doohan, Carmen Ejogo, Isiah Whitlock Jr,, Sofia Black-D’Elia and Keith Machekanyanga.

Additionally, there will be more of Big Mo in Season 2. Andrene Ward-Hammond, who recurred as the character in the first season, has been promoted to series regular for the upcoming season. Big Mo is the formidable leader of the Desire Gang, who demands fierce loyalty as she pushes to expand her empire throughout New Orleans. Ward-Hammond appeared in five episodes in the first season.

Season 1 of Your Honor, which was based on the Israeli series Kvodo created by Ron Ninio and Shlomo Mashiach, became the most-watched debut season on Showtime ever with 6.6 million weekly viewers.

Your Honor is produced by CBS Studios in association with KingSize Productions.

Perez can currently be seen starring in The Flight Attendant as Megan Briscoe, a role which earned her an Emmy nomination for Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She also can be seen starring in Apple TV+’s bilingual thriller series Now and Then and voices Petra in animated series Human Resources

Oscar-nominated for her role in Fearless, Perez’s additional film credits include Do the Right Thing and White Men Can’t Jump.

Benjamin Flores Jr. Signs with Hyperion for Agency Representation

Benjamin Flores Jr. is under new representation…

The 19-year-old Latino actor and rapper has signed with Hyperion for agency representation.

Benjamin Flores Jr.

Flores most recently starred in the Leigh Janiak-directed Netflix feature trilogy Fear Street, released this past summer.

He’s also a series regular on the Showtime drama Your Honor alongside Bryan Cranston and Michael Stuhlbarg. The series, which has been picked up for a second season, became the most-watched debut season ever on Showtime as well as the network’s most watched series.

Flores was previously a lead in the McG-directed Netflix feature comedy Rim of the World and played a supporting role in the $605M-global grossing Transformers: The Last Knight for Paramount.

The actor got his start as a series regular on Nickelodeon’s The Haunted Hathaways followed by Game Shakers.

He is a recipient of the Imagen Award for Best Young Actor-Television.

Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” Wins Top Prize at the Venice Film Festival

Guillermo del Toro has reason to roar…

The 52-year-old Mexican filmmaker’s lyrical period fairy tale, The Shape of Water, was awarded the top prize Golden Lion at this year’s Venice Film Festival.

Guillermo del Toro

del Toro’s fantasy premiered on the Lido last week early in the proceedings, and left viewers swooning in its wake. It was among the best-reviewed films of the festival, and had one of the most emotional gala screenings in memory.

When the Lion was announced tonight, the press room positively erupted with joy.

The Shape Of Water, a Cold War-set parable that stars Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer and Michael Shannon, represents del Toro’s first time in competition in Venice.

The prize, he noted, is the first time a Mexican helmer has won the Golden Lion.

From the stage, the filmmaker said, “I’m 52 years old, I weigh 300 pounds, and I’ve done 10 movies. There is a moment in every storyteller’s life, no matter what age you are, you risk it all and go and do something different.”

Added the teary del Toro, “To every Latin American filmmaker dreaming of doing something in the fantastic genre, it can be done.”

He said he intends to call the statue the “Sergio Leone” and remarked how full the Sala Grande was of the things he believes in, “Life, love and cinema.” That echoed something he’d said earlier in the week of the film, which mixes fantasy, romance, thriller, and old-style Hollywood: it’s a movie that’s “in love with love and in love with cinema.”

Shape took 10 years of struggle for del Toro to get made, and he’s said it was the hardest shoot he’s ever had.

With his Venice appearance, del Toro completed, in a way, a circle begun by his compatriots and pals Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro G Inarritu, whose Gravity and Birdman, respectively, made big splashes in recent years on this island before going on to Oscar glory. The Shape Of Water is a movie we will be talking about all through awards season.

Backstage, del Toro spoke to the press and was asked about the significance of the win for genre movies. “It means a lot,” he said pointing to parables that are “artistic, beautiful, politically charged movies.” It’s about time, he said, that “we understand every vernacular in cinema done with intelligence and passion is valid.”

Here’s a look at the overall winners:

VENICE 74

Golden Lion
The Shape Of Water, dir: Guillermo del Toro

Grand Jury Prize
Foxtrot, Samuel Maoz

Silver Lion, Best Director
Xavier Legrand, Jusqu’à La Garde

Volpi Cup, Best Actress
Charlotte Rampling, Hannah

Volpi Cup, Best Actor
Kamel El Basha, The Insult

Best Screenplay
Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Special Jury Prize
Sweet Country, dir: Warwick Thornton

Marcello Mastroianni Award for for Best New Young Actor or Actress
Charlie Plummer, Lean On Pete

VENICE HORIZONS

Best Film
Nico, 1988, dir: Susanna Nicchiarelli

Best Director
Vahid Jalilvand, No Date, No Signature

Special Jury Prize
Caniba, dirs: Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel

Best Actress
Lyna Khoudri, Les Bienheureux

Best Actor
Navid Mohammadzadeh, No Date, No Signature

Best Screenplay
Los Versos Del Olvido, dir: Alireza Khatami

Best Short Film
Gros Chagrin, dir: Céline Devaux

Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film
Jusqu’à La Garde, dir: Xavier Legrand

VENICE CLASSICS

Best Restoration
Idi I Smotri, dir: Elem Klimov

Best Documentary on Cinema
The Prince And The Dybbuk, dirs: Elwira Niewiera, Piotr Rosolowski

VENICE VIRTUAL REALITY

Best VR
Arden’s Wake (Expanded), dir: Eugene YK Chung

Best VR Experience
La Camera Insabbiata, dirs: Laurie Anderson, Hsin-Chien Huang

Best VR Story
Bloodless, dir: Gina Kim

Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” to Show at the Telluride Film Festival

Guillermo del Toro is heading to Colorado…

The 52-year-old Mexican filmmaker is among the directors taking the films to the Telluride Film Festival this year.

Guillermo del Toro

The festival, which always holds its cards close to the vest until the eve of the annual Rocky Mountain movie event — and which has become a strong bellwether for Oscar season with several Best Picture winners first showing there at the official launch of awards season — looks to have several major contenders in the lineup just released this morning.

del Toro will be bringing his latest film The Shape of Water to the film, after premiering the film to glowing reviews at the Venice Film Festival.

The filmmaker’s lyrical period fairy tale, starring Sally Hawkins, marks a return to Pan’s Labyrinth territory for the filmmaker.

It also stars Michael Stuhlbarg, Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins.

There will be plenty of foreign-language Oscar hopefuls on display including Chile’s transgender drama Fantastic Woman, directed by Sebastián Lelio.

The 43-year-old Argentinian-born Chilean filmmaker’s film stars Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes and Luis Gnecco.

The film centers on Marina as a young transgender waitress and aspiring singer. Reyes stars as Orlando, 20 years older than her, is the owner of a printing press. Marina and Orlando are in love and they both plan a future together. After Orlando dies suddenly, Marina sees herself forced to confront Orlando´s family and fight again to show everyone what she is: a complex, strong, honest and fantastic woman.

Here’s the complete lineup below:

  • ARTHUR MILLER: WRITER (d. Rebecca Miller, U.S., 2017)
  • BATTLE OF THE SEXES (d. Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton, U.S., 2017)
  • DARKEST HOUR (d. Joe Wright, U.K., 2017)
  • DOWNSIZING (d. Alexander Payne, U.S., 2017)
  • EATING ANIMALS (d. Christopher Quinn, U.S., 2017)
  • FACES PLACES (d. Agnes Varda, JR, France, 2017)
  • A FANTASTIC WOMAN (d. Sebastián Lelio, Chile-U.S.-Germany-Spain, 2017)
  • FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL (d. Paul McGuigan, U.K., 2017)
  • FIRST REFORMED (d. Paul Schrader, U.S., 2017)
  • FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER (d. Angelina Jolie, U.S.-Cambodia, 2017)
  • FOXTROT (d. Samuel Maoz, Israel, 2017)
  • HOSTAGES (d. Rezo Gigineishvili, Georgia-Russia-Poland, 2017)
  • HOSTILES (d. Scott Cooper, U.S., 2017)
  • HUMAN FLOW (d. Ai Weiwei, U.S.-Germany, 2017)
  • THE INSULT (d. Ziad Doueiri, France-Lebanon, 2017)
  • LADY BIRD (d. Greta Gerwig, U.S., 2017)
  • LAND OF THE FREE (d. Camilla Magid, Denmark-Finland, 2017)
  • LEAN ON PETE (d. Andrew Haigh, U.K.-U.S., 2017)
  • LOVELESS (d. Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia-France-Belgium-Germany, 2017)
  • LOVE, CECIL (d. Lisa Immordino Vreeland, U.S., 2017)
  • LOVING VINCENT (d. Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, U.K.-Poland, 2017)
  • A MAN OF INTEGRITY (d. Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran, 2017)
  • THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE (d. Aki Kaurismäki, Finland, 2017)
  • THE RIDER (d. Chloé Zhao, U.S., 2017)
  • THE SHAPE OF WATER (d. Guillermo del Toro, U.S., 2017)
  • TESNOTA (d. Kantemir Balagov, Russia, 2017)
  • THE VENERABLE W. (d. Barbet Schroeder, France-Switzerland, 2017)
  • THE VIETNAM WAR (d. Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, U.S., 2017)
  • WORMWOOD (d. Errol Morris, U.S., 2017)
  • WONDERSTRUCK (d. Todd Haynes, U.S., 2017)

Two documentary shorts, HEROIN(E) (d. Elaine McMillion Sheldon, U.S., 2017) and LONG SHOT (d. Jacob LaMendola, U.S., 2017) will also play together in the main program.

 

Fox Searchlight to Release del Toro’s Cold War Drama “The Shape of Water” in December

Guillermo del Toro is getting in Shape for December…

Fox Searchlight will release the 52-year-old Mexican filmmaker’s Cold War drama The Shape of Water on December 8, right in the wheelhouse of the annual film awards season.

Guillermo del Toro

The fantasy adventure film, which has been mostly shrouded in secrecy stars Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Lauren Lee Smith, Michael Stuhlbarg and Octavia Spencer.

Fox Searchlight describes the film as “an other-wordly fairy tale, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1963. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Hawkins) is trapped in a life of silence and isolation. Her life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment.”

The experiment apparently is an “aquatic man,” played by Jones, a frequent del Toro collaborator who has appeared in the writer-director’s Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy movies, as well as his FX series The Strain.

del Toro directs from the script he wrote with Vanessa Taylor.

del Toro to Direct Untitled Supernatural Romance for Fox Searchlight

Guillermo del Toro’s next project is taking Shape

The 51-year-old Mexican filmmaker will direct an untitled supernatural romance for Fox Searchlight with Michael Shannon is in talks to star.

Guillermo del Toro

The project, rumored to be titled The Shape of Water, is set in 1963 with Shannon playing the villain of the story. A mute laboratory worker, to be played by Sally Hawkins, falls in love with an amphibious man who’s being held captive.

Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer and Michael Stuhlbarg will co-star.

del Toro is directing and producing with Callum Greene, who worked with him on both Pacific Rim and Crimson Peak.