Myriad Pictures to Handle Worldwide Sales of Peña’s Drama “Frontera”

Michael Peña’s U.S-Mexico border-themed film may see life beyond the United States.

Myriad Pictures has announced plans to handle worldwide sales outside the U.S. and Canada on the dramatic thriller Frontera.

 Michael Peña

Starring the 37-year-old Mexican American actor, Eva Longoria and Ed Harris, the film follows the events that take place after a former U.S. sheriff’s wife (portrayed by Amy Madigan) is fatally injured while riding on her ranch property in the dangerous border area between the U.S. and Mexico.

Michael Berry directed the film, which he co-wrote with Luis Moulinet III.

Currently in post-production, Frontera is expected to be released in 2014.

Garcia’s “The Lifeguard” Acquired by Focus World & Screen Media Films

It looks like Liz W. Garcia’s first feature film will be released in the United States. 

Focus World and Screen Media Films have partnered to acquire the U.S. distribution rights to the 35-year-old Latina filmmaker’s The Lifeguard, which made its debut at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Liz W. Garcia

Written and directed by Garcia, The Lifeguard marks her first feature after working as a writer and producer on television shows like Cold Case and co-creating Memphis Beat  with her husband Joshua Harto.

Kristen Bell stars alongside Mamie Gummer, Martin Starr and Amy Madigan in the film, which centers on Leigh (Bell), almost 30 and living a seemingly perfect life in New York. But when her career and love life both come crashing down, she flees to her suburban hometown and regresses back into high school life. Picking up right where her teen halcyon days left off, she moves into her old room with her parents, hangs out with friends who never left town and reclaims her high school job as a condo-complex lifeguard. But as Leigh enjoys shirking adult life and responsibilities and enters into an illicit affair, she begins a chain reaction that affects those closest to her.

The Lifeguard

Focus World, the alternative label owned and operated by Focus Features, and Screen Media will release The Lifeguard in theaters and on digital platforms in the summer.

Cannavele’s “Lovelace” to Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival

Bobby Cannavale is leaving Boardwalk Empire and heading to Park City, Utah…

The 42-year-old half-Cuban American’s latest film Lovelace has just been added to the out-of-competition Premieres section of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Bobby Cannavale

Starring Amanda Seyfried, the biopic shines a spotlight on the life of adult film star Linda Lovelace. Deep Throat, the first pornographic feature to be a mainstream success, was an international sensation in 1972 and made its star, Lovelace, a media darling. Years later the “poster girl for the sexual revolution” revealed a darker side to her story.

Cannavale plays film financier Butchie Peraino in the film, which also stars Peter Sarsgaard, Hank Azaria, Adam Brody, James Franco and Sharon Stone.

Meanwhile, Eduardo Noriega will also be seeing his latest film premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

Sweetwater, starring the 39-year-old Spanish actor, has been added to the festival’s lineup.

Set in the late 1800s, the film centers on a fanatical religious leader, a renegade Sheriff and a former prostitute as they collide in a blood triangle on the rugged plains of the New Mexico Territory.

Along with Noriega, the film stars Ed Harris, January Jones, Jason Isaacs and Amy Madigan.