AMC to Premiere “The Walking Dead: Dead City,” Starring Trey Santiago-Hudson, This Sunday

Trey Santiago-Hudson is ready to fight the dead…

The part-Puerto Rican actor is starring in The Walking Dead: Dead City, which premieres this Sunday June 18 at 10:00 pm ET.

The Walking Dead: Dead City follows the popular Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) characters traveling into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, long ago cut off from the mainland. The crumbling city is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of anarchy, danger, beauty and terror.

In addition to Cohan, Morgan and Santiago-Hudson, the series also stars Gaius Charles and Željko Ivanek, along with Jonathan Higginbotham, Mahina Napoleon and Charlie Solis.

Eli Jorné, who has been a writer and co-executive producer on The Walking Dead for multiple seasons serves as showrunner and executive producer on the series, which is overseen by Scott M. Gimple, chief content officer of The Walking Dead Universe.

“It’s The Walking Dead like we’ve never seen it before. We haven’t really lived in a city like this.” Jorné said at a WonderCon event earlier this year. “It’s New York; there’s skyscrapers up to the sky and a million and a half walkers. And for characters like Maggie and Negan, who’ve been running through the woods for a long time, it’s just a whole new world that’s just extremely claustrophobic, scary, and also, as you’ll discover, has pockets of survivors, you’ll get to see all the strange new ways they live in the apocalypse, it’s definitely like nothing you’ve seen before.”

Dead City is the fourth spinoff in the Walking Dead universe following Fear The Walking Dead, World Beyond and Tales of the Walking Dead and is the first sequel to the original Walking Dead series.

The series will air on AMC and AMC+. Subsequent episodes will move to the 9:00 pm ET timeslot.

A Band of Bitches Releases Desierto-Inspired Single “El Diablo Güero,” feat. Victoria Morales

A Band of Bitches is getting political…

The masked Mexican alternative group has released the single “El Diablo Güero,” a pro-immigrant, anti-Donald Trump song, featuring singer/songwriter and studio owner Victoria Morales.

A Band of Bitches

The funky pop-punk track was recorded to coincide with the current run in Mexican theaters of director Jonas Cuaron’s “migrant thriller,” Desierto, which will be the closing film at this year’s LA Film Festival.

The film, about Mexican workers trying to cross the border to the United States who are pursued in the desert by a murderous American vigilante (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). It stars Gael Garcia Bernal, well-known to American viewers from the Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle.

Morales wrote the bilingual song inspired by the film with Latin Grammy-nominated A Band of Bitches’ member Ushka at Cuaron’s request. “El Diablo Güero” is not, however, part of the film’s original soundtrack, whose layers of ominous and sublime music were composed by Woodkid.

“[Cuaron] sort of felt the need for [another] song that could really capture the entire film,” Morales told Billboard. “El Diablo Güero” was written and recorded in a few days, with production supervised by Cuaron at Morales’ Victoria Records Studio in Monterrey.

A Band of Bitches announced the debut of the new track alongside Cuaron and Morales at the Vive Latino festival in Mexico City; it was released to Mexican radio during the second week after the film premiered in theaters in April. The movie is still playing in Mexico.

The track samples lines from the film that Morales says had the most impact on her, particularly the words “welcome to the land of the free” spoken during one chilling scene.

Although journalists in Mexico have pointed out that the title could be a reference to Trump and his statements about Mexican immigrants, Morales maintains that it was the film’s American killer who inspired the song.

“In the end everyone is going to hear what they want to hear and make their own interpretation,” Morales says. “I think that it could become sort of an anthem, because of the relation of what’s happening in the United States and with the elections.”

Desierto is set for a commercial run on the U.S. sometime before the elections. A trailer for the film used an audio clip of Trump’s infamous Mexican “rapists” comment.

Cuaron, the son of Oscar-winner Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity), will next write and direct the Zorro sequel Z, also starring Garcia Bernal.

Cuarón’s “Desierto” Selected as the LA Film Fest’s Closing Night Film

Jonás Cuarón’s award-winning film is headed to Los Angeles…

The Mexican filmmaker’s thriller Desierto will be the closing night film of the Los Angeles Film Festival on June. 9.

Jonás Cuarón

Cuarón co-wrote and directed the film which centers on Mexican migrant workers looking to seek a better life by crossing the US border. Their journey quickly becomes a fight for survival, when the unarmed men and women are chased across the desert terrain by a merciless rifle-toting vigilante.

Desierto stars Gael García Bernal, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Alondra Hidalgo and Diego Cataño.

It was previously shown at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the Prize of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) for Special Presentations.

The LA Film Fest runs from June 1 through June 9.

Cuaron’s Spanish-Language Drama “Desierto” Lands at STX Entertainment

It looks like Jonás Cuarón latest film will make its way north of the U.S.-Mexico border…

The 34-year-old Mexican film director and screenwriter’s latest project Desierto has landed at STX Entertainment.

Jonas Cuaron

The Spanish-language film centers on a group of immigrants trying to cross the border from Mexico into the United States when they encounter a man who has taken up border patrol duties in his own racist hands.

Desierto, which stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, won the Prize of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) for Special Presentations at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

Cuarón, the son of Academy Award-winning film director and screenwriter Alfonso Cuarón, co-wrote his father’s Oscar-winning film Gravity.

STX Entertainment’s deal is for Desierto’s North American rights.

Martinez Signs with Paradigm Talent Agency

Olivier Martinez has new representation…

The 49-year-old half-Spanish actor has signed on as a client with Paradigm Talent Agency.

Olivier Martinez

Martinez, who has a César Award under his belt for 1993’s Un, deux, trois, soleil, most recently appeared last season on ABC’s Revenge as French billionaire media mogul Pascal LeMarchal.

He’ll next appear in History Channel’s upcoming miniseries Texas Rising playing Antonio López de Santa Anna, the 19th century Mexican general known as the Napoleon of the West, in a cast that includes Bill Paxton, Ray Liotta, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Brendan Fraser and Chad Michael Murray.

Martinez rose to acclaim in the United States after starring in Unfaithful with Diane Lane and Richard Gere. His other credits include Before Night Falls opposite Javier Bardem, S.W.A.T. with Samuel L. Jackson, D.J. Caruso’s Taking Lives, and Dark Tide with wife Halle Berry.

Martinez to Star in History’s “Texas Rising” Miniseries

Olivier Martinez’s stock is rising with a new project…

The 48-year-old half-Spanish actor has joined the cast of History’s miniseries Texas Rising (working title) from A+E Studios and ITV Studios America.

Olivier Martinez

Executive produced by History’s Leslie Greif (Hatfields & McCoys), the project will detail the Texas Revolution against Mexico and the rise of the legendary Texas Rangers.

The miniseries, consisting of eight hour-long episodes, will be directed by Roland Joffé.

Martinez will portray Mexican general Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.

Other members of the all-star cast include Christopher McDonald, Trevor Donovan, Bill Paxton, Brendan Fraser, Ray Liotta, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Thomas Jane, Chad Michael Murray, Michael Rapaport and Max Thieriot.

Cuarón to Helm His First English-Language Film, “Desierto”

Jonás Cuarón is heading to el desierto to direct his first Englaish-language film….

The Mexican filmmaker will direct Gael Garcia Bernal and Jeffrey Dean Morgan in thriller Desierto.

Jonás Cuarón

The story focuses on a group of illegal immigrants, one of which is portrayed by Bernal, who try to cross the border but run afoul of a man (Morgan) who has taken up border patrol duties in his own racist hands.

Cuarón, who co-wrote the awards contender Gravity with his father, Alfonso Cuarón.

Alfonso Cuarón, Carlos Cuarón and Alex Garcia are producing the film, which will be shot in Baja, California in February.

Bernal is exec producing along with Lucas Akoskin and Santiago Garcia Galvan.

Cuarón’s credits include Año uña and The Shock Doctrine.

Starz Releases “Magic City” Season Two Trailer Featuring Morales

Starz hasn’t announced a premiere date for the second season of Magic City… But the network has released a trailer for the acclaimed mob drama, which will see Esai Morales’ return to television.

Magic City Gallery

Set in 1959 Miami shortly after the Cuban Revolution, Magic City tells the story of Ike Evans (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the owner of the Miramar Playa, Miami’s most glamorous hotel. Evans is forced to make an ill-fated deal with Miami mob boss Ben Diamond (Danny Huston) to ensure the success of his glitzy establishment.

Along with Morales – who will play Carlos Ruiz, a former rebel who once fought beside Fidel Castro but now works to free Cuba from the man he once considered a brother – Mitch Glazer’s drama will see another newcomer (James Caan) and the promise of more blood spilled.

The show’s other Latino stars include Andy Garcia‘s daughter Dominik Garcia-Lorido and Yul Vazquez.

Morales to Appear on Starz’s “Magic City”

Esai Morales is about to feel the magic

The 49-year-old Puerto Rican actor has signed to star in Starz‘s Miami-set period drama Magic City.

Esai Morales

Set in 1959 Miami just after the Cuban Revolution, Magic City tells the story of Ike Evans (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the owner of Miami’s glitzy Miramar Playa hotel, who is forced to make a deal with local mob boss Ben Diamond (Danny Huston).

Morales, an NYPD Blue alum, will play Carlos Ruiz, a former rebel who once fought beside Castro but now works to free Cuba from the man he once considered a brother.

Morales—who rose to acclaim for his role as Ritchie Valens’ troubled brother in the 1987 biopic La Bamba—recently recurred on Fairly Legal and Caprica.

Filming on Season 2 of Magic City starts this week in Miami for a 2013 premiere.

Returning are creator/executive producer Mitch Glazer and cast members Morgan, Olga Kurylenko, Yul Vazquez, Dominik Garcia-Lorido and Elena Satine.