Serna Joins Cast of Alexander Payne’s Satire “Downsizing”

Pepe Serna is downsizing…

The 71-year-old Mexican American veteran character actor and artist has joined the cast of Alexander Payne’s satire Downsizing, joining Matt DamonKristen WiigChristoph Waltz and Hong Chau, according to Variety.

Pepe Serna

The Paramount film, currently shooting in Toronto, centers on an Omaha man who joins the throngs of people undergoing a new process that reduces humans to a tiny fraction of their size. Then they move to one of the many communities of small people that are sprouting up around the world.

“It’s the smallest part I’ve ever had, four inches to be exact,” Serna said.

Payne is co-writing the script with Jim Taylor. The duo won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay for Sideways and collaborated on the scripts for Citizen Ruth, Election, Jurassic Park III, About Schmidt and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.

Serna is also one of the new members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, announced on Wednesday.

His career dates back nearly 50 years with credits including Scarface, American Me, Car Wash, The Black Dahlia and The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez.

González Iñárritu to Receive Director of the Year Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival

Alejandro González Iñárritu may have a little extra spring in his step after his latest award… 

The 51-year-old Mexican film director will receive this year’s Director of the Year Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival‘s 26th annual Awards Gala on January 3.

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman

Inarritu, who has said that Birdman is a semi-autobiographical project, has already received Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice nominations for his co-writing and direction of the project.

He previously received PSIFF‘s Director of the Year Award in 2007 for his work on Babel (2006).

Other previous recipients of the PSIFF prize include Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave (2013), Robert Zemeckis for Flight (2012), Stephen Daldry for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011), David O. Russell for The Fighter (2010), Jason Reitman for Up in the Air (2009), Sean Penn for Into the Wild (2007) and Alexander Payne for Sideways (2004).

“By creating the illusion that the film was shot in one take and directing award-worthy performances by Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Emma Stone and a star-studded cast, Inarritu,” PSIFF chairman Harold Matzner said in a statement. “Inarritu has created a brilliant and original dark comedy.”

The film festival will run January 2-12.

Krause to Star in “White Rabbit”

Nick Krause is preparing to go down the rabbit hole…

The 20-year-old part-Mexican actor, who had a break-out role in Alexander Payne’s Oscar-winning drama The Descendants, is set to star in the indie film White Rabbit.

Nick Krause

Described as a dark drama with fantasy elements, White Rabbit tells the story of a bullied, high school teen, to be played by Krause, who starts having visions of a rabbit that he killed when he was nine years old. The rabbit, along with other imaginary characters, turn menacing in the hopes of pushing him over the edge and luring him into one last fatal act of revenge.

Tim McKann is directing the film, which will begin shooting in New Orleans in July.

Krause won rave reviews for playing the dim-witted but affable Sid—the boyfriend of Shailene Woodley—in The Descendants. One of the film’s most memorable scenes involved Krause getting punched in the face by Robert Forster.