First Photo Released for Saldaña “Guardians of the Galaxy”

Zoë Saldaña’s next role will have you seeing green and red…

The 33-year-old half-Dominican/half-Puerto Rican American actress is starring in Marvel’s new superhero film Guardians of the Galaxy, which saw the release of the first official photo from the film.

Guardians of the Galaxy

In the image, Saldaña’s red-hair and green-skinned character Gamora is featured in a line up alongside Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), leader Star-Lord a.k.a. Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), Rocket Raccoon and Groot, voiced by Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel respectively.

Gamora’s powers include superhuman strength and agility and an accelerated healing factor.

An action-packed, epic space adventure, Guardians of the Galaxy expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe.

To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits – Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer.

But when Peter discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand – with the galaxy’s fate in the balance.

Directed by James Gunn, the tentpole project will hit US theaters on August 1, 2014.

Along with the main cast, the film also stars Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, Benicio del Toro, John C. Reilly and Glenn Close.

AMC Orders the Campanella-Directed “Halt & Catch Fire” Pilot to Series

Juan José Campanella’s latest project catches fire at AMC

AMC has picked up the scripted series Halt & Catch Fire. Set in the early 1980s, the series dramatizes the personal computing boom through the eyes of a visionary, an engineer and a prodigy whose innovations directly confront the corporate giants of the time. Their personal and professional partnership will be challenged by greed and ego while charting the changing culture in Texas’ Silicon Prairie. It stars Lee Pace, Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis.

Juan José Campanella

The pilot was helmed by the 54-year-old Argentine film and television director. His directing credits include House MD, 30 Rock and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Halt & Catch Fire stars Lee Pace, Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis.

In 2009, Campanella won a Goya Award and an Academy Award for directing the Spanish-Language film El secreto de sus ojos.

Del Toro to Star in Marvel Studios’ “Guardians of the Galaxy”

Benicio Del Toro has landed a galactic role…

The 46-year-old Puerto Rican actor has joined the cast of the James Gunn-directed Marvel Studios franchise launcher Guardians Of The Galaxy.

Benicio Del Toro

Del Toro’s role is being kept under wraps, but he’s said to be playing a character built to be part of future Marvel films, which means he’s signed a deal with options that put him into multiple movies.

Del Toro joins a cast that includes Glenn Close, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, John C. Reilly and others in the cast.

Del Toro most recently joined the cast of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice. He’ll next appear in Jimmy P, the film that made its world premiere in competition at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

He’s also set to star in an untitled film directed by Terrence Malick.

Campanella to Direct AMC’s “Halt & Catch Fire” Drama Pilot

Juan José Campanella’s career is catching fire

The 53-year-old Argentine filmmaker will direct former Pushing Daisies star Lee Pace and Mackenzie Davis in AMC’s drama pilot Halt & Catch Fire from AMC Studios.

Juan José Campanella

Set in the early 1980s, Halt & Catch Fire centers on the personal computing boom through the eyes of a visionary, an engineer and a prodigy whose innovations directly confront the corporate behemoths of the time. Their personal and professional partnership will be challenged by greed and ego while charting the changing culture in Texas’ Silicon Prairie.

Pace will portray the visionary, the confident and powerful Joe MacMillan. Once a superstar salesman at IBM, MacMillan recently departed under mysterious circumstances only to resurface at a Dallas tech company.

Davis will plays the prodigy, Cameron Howe, a talented but volatile computer programming graduate student whose aggressive exterior has everything to do with protecting a vulnerability underneath.

Campanella previously directed episodes of House: MD, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and 30 Rock, as well as the award-winning Argentine miniseries El hombre de tu vida.