Uncork’ed Entertainment Acquires Danny Trejo’s “The Curse Of Wolf Mountain” for U.S. Digital & DVD Release

Danny Trejo will be spreading his curse across the U.S. this May…

The action-horror film The Curse Of Wolf Mountain, featuring the 78-year-old Mexican American actor and Tobin Bell in the cast, has been acquired by Uncork’d Entertainment for a U.S. digital and DVD release in May.

Danny TrejoKeli Price wrote and stars in the horror film while David Lipper, who also features in the cast, directs.

Price plays a man who starts to have vivid dreams about his parents’ death and decides to return to the remote mountain spot where they were killed, with his brother and his brother’s family.

Further cast members include Eddie McClintock and Fernanda Romero, alongside Trejo and Bell.

Working under the banner of Latigo Films, Lipper also recently took writing and producing credits on the action thriller Hunt Club, starring Mickey Rourke and Mena Suvari, which Uncork’d Entertainment also acquired.

“It’s great to be back in business again with producer, actor and filmmaker David Lipper following the successful release of Hunt Club. While very different from the latter, The Curse Of Wolf Mountain is no less as thrilling and star-studded,” said Uncork’d Entertainment President Keith Leopard.

Carlos V. Gutierrez’s “Barton Creek” Biopic One Step Closer to Production

Carlos V. Gutierrez is one set closer to beginning work on his next project…

Producer John Martinez O’Felan has secured financing and set his next project, Barton Creek, a Latino-led and LatinX inclusive feature biopic written and directed by the award-winning Cuban-American director.

Carlos V. Gutierrez,,The feature follows the triumphant life story of Cuban political exile and innocence project participant Carlos Lavernia, who was wrongfully convicted to life in prison and spent 15 years behind bars before being proven innocent.

Lavernia is a Havana-born immigrant and former Cuban soldier imprisoned in Fidel Castro’s Cuba before being sent on the Mariel Boatlift of 1980 to live in the U.S in exile. While in his early 30’s, he settled in Austin, Texas, where he began his new life. After hanging out at a local landmark known as the Barton Springs Pool area, an area hot-spot known for day drinking at the time, Lavernia finds himself questioned by authorities for predatory crimes based on his racial identity. Having issues with PTSD from his past life, Lavernia has a manic episode during questioning, leading to greater suspicion. With a police sketch as the only key evidence, Lavernia is arrested and detained. After inadequate representation by a court-appointed attorney, he was convicted to life in prison based on the color of his skin and his lack of proper English.

Throughout his 15-year conviction, Lavernia maintained his innocence and methodically taught himself English and gained knowledge of the legal system in the prison’s law library, self-representing yearly appeals to only meet rejection until 1999, when he eventually wrote Johnny Cochran, which led to an introduction to Barry Scheck, Lavernia’s case was finally reopened for DNA evidence review, new technology at the time, and overseen by Barry Scheck and the Innocence Project.

During the review process, his legal team discovered that the evidence used in Lavernia’s case, which was supposed to be destroyed, was somehow lodged in a file cabinet and preserved — a miracle that led to Lavernia’s exoneration, making national and international headlines, only for Lavernia to later wait in holding for five more years while the U.S Immigration office cleared his green card status, to avoid being sent back to Cuba.

O’Felan, under his Mankind Entertainment banner, and Gutierrez will produce through Rite of Passage Pictures LLC, a new Austin, Texas-based shingle set up with local entrepreneur Jay Lamy, to develop stories based on human struggles that are inspiring, enlightening, or encouraging through their central characters.

O’Felan says, “Beyond the wrongful conviction based on racial profiling, Mr. Lavernia’s life journey represents a greater humility and perseverance which leads to good overpowering evil. Coming from a Latin American country, His story offers a crucial representation of the struggles of Latino history in 1980s America, and stories like these are inspiring and essential and need to be heard.”

Casting on Barton Creek is now underway with an eye toward fast-tracking production in Austin and Colombia in early 2023.

Gutierrez is a Miami-born Cuban-American filmmaker who attended film school at Tufts University, where he was awarded a Graduate Fellowship to New York University’s Master Film Program. While at NYU, he won the DGA Student Film Awards for Best Latino Filmmaker and the Grand Prize in the HBO Latino Film Festival Short Film Contest. He was honored by the AMPTP with a Student Academy Award nomination for his short film Wet Foot, Dry Foot, leading his work to become selected and win the Showtime Network’s Latino Filmmaker’s showcase. Gutierrez’s feature indie film debut Locked In starred Mena Suvari and was released by Saban Films / Paramount, and recently wrapped his second feature Stay Safe, which is currently in post-production.

Amazon to Debut Canto’s Pilot “Hysteria” Online for Customer Feedback

Adan Canto will be bringing a little hysteria to Amazon

The electronic ecommerce site will debut its third pilot season on August 28 on Amazon Instant Video in the U.S. and the United Kingdom as well as Amazon’s instant video app.

Adan Canto

And it appears Canto’s latest project Hysteria is one of the five pilots to make the grade, with Amazon posting the pilot episodes online and inviting its customers to give their feedback.

Hysteria takes viewers to Austin, Texas, where social connection has become contagious. In the pilot, members of a girls’ competitive dance team are stricken with a strange, psycho-physiological illness that manifests itself in violent fits and spasms and then begins spreading in the community through technology.

Neurologist Logan Harlen (portrayed by Mena Suvari) returns to her hometown to investigate the cause. Fighting her own demons and the growing manipulation of a brother on death row, Logan develops an uneasy suspicion that the hysteria surrounding the girls might actually be linked to social media and her own tragic past.

The 32-year-old Mexican actor portrays Matt Sanchez in the pilot.

Written by Shaun Cassidy, known for genre thrillers like Invasion and American Gothic, and directed by Otto Bathurst, the show also stars James McDaniel, Josh Stewart, Laura San Giacomo and T.R. Knight.

 

Amazon Studios is collaborating with Universal Television and Alcon Television Group on the production of Hysteria.

Canto Starring in Amazon’s Dramatic Thriller Pilot “Hysteria”

It’s a time of hysteria for Adan Canto.

The 32-year-old Mexican actor is starring in Amazon’s hour-long dramatic thriller pilot Hysteria, from Amazon Studios, Universal Television and Alcon Television Group.

Adan Canto

Amazon has added the program to its third pilot season.

From Shaun Cassidy, the series also stars Mena Suvari, James McDaniel, Josh Stewart, Laura San Giacomo and T.R. Knight.

Hysteria takes viewers to Austin, Texas, where members of a girls’ competitive dance team are stricken with a strange, psycho-physiological illness that manifests in violent fits and spasms.  Neurologist Logan Harlen (Suvari) is called back to her hometown to investigate the cause. Fighting her own demons (and the growing manipulation of a brother on death row), Logan develops an uneasy suspicion that the hysteria surrounding the girls might actually be linked to social media and her own tragic past.

The show is written by Cassidy.

Amazon customers will once again be invited to watch and provide feedback on the pilots they want to see turned into full series, which will then become available on Prime Instant Video.

Hysteria joins The Cosmopolitans, Really and Hand Of God for Amazon’s third pilot season, which will all debut later this year on Amazon Instant Video.

Loren Cast in Lifetime’s Original Movie “Stalkers”

Lela Loren is getting the Lifetime treatment…

The Latina actress has joined the cast of Lifetime’s two-hour original movie/backdoor pilot Stalkers, which could become a full series on the network.

Lela Loren

The project follows Diane Harper (Drea de Matteo), a hot-headed cop with a troubled past, and a polished, ambitious district attorney (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe) who team up to bring a stalker (Mena Suvari), obsessed with her former lover (Loren), to justice.

Loren most recently starred in the Warner Brothers web series H+, produced by Bryan Singer.

Loren’s television credits include guest-starring appearances on Covert Affairs, The Shield, The Mentalist, Lost and CSI; Miami.

Prinze Jr. May Be Returning to Television Next Season

Freddie Prinze Jr. could be heading back to television in the near future…

The 36-year-old part-Puerto Rican actor, who starred in ABC’s short-lived Freddie back in 2005-2006, has joined the cast of an untitled comedy pilot for NBC.

Freddie Prinze Jr.

The single-camera project centers on Agnes (Sarah Wright), a shy, focused woman who, after being dumped by her fiancé Noah (Prinze), leans on her co-workers at Pharmville to help her come out of her shell and plot her revenge.

Prinze’s character Noah also works at Pharmville, but he’s worked his way up from “lab rat” to the corporate office. Engaged to Agnes for two years, and romantically involved for four, he has decided to break up with her because his new job has suddenly given him the chance to be new Noah, and new Noah is about easy laughs and good times. He’s ready to come out of his nerd shell, and part of that shell is Agnes.

In addition to Wright, Prinze also joins the previously cast actors Mena Suvari and Kyle Howard.

Following Freddie, Prinze had guest-starring roles on 24 and Psych.