The producers of this year’s 93rd annual Academy Awards have cast an ensemble of 15 stars to handle all the presenting duties, including the 89-year-old Puerto Rican actress, singer and dancer.
Moreno, one of the few artists to have won all four major annual American entertainment awards: an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award, is part of a “cast” that includes last year’s Oscar winners Joaquin Phoenix, Renee Zellweger, Brad Pitt and Laura Dern.
It’s part of the producers’ pledge to do the entire broadcast as if it were a movie itself.
Last year’s Best Director winner, Bong Joon Ho, who made four trips to the stage for Parasite, is also part of this ensemble, presumably to present Best Director.
Other names announced — in alphabetical order — are Angela Bassett, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle, Bryan Cranston, Harrison Ford, Regina King, Marlee Matlin, Reese Witherspoon and Zendaya.
“In keeping with our awards-show-as-a-movie approach, we’ve assembled a truly stellar cast of stars,” said producers Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher and Steven Soderbergh. “There’s so much wattage here, sunglasses may be required.”
This idea of having a set group of presenters rotating in and out of the show is not new. When producer Gower Champion reimagined the 1969 Oscar show, he created what they called “Friends of Oscar,” with 10 stars exclusively serving as presenters (and no host). The format was then repeated successfully the next year, and has been tweaked occasionally over the decades — including for the innovative 2009 show produced by Bill Condon and Laurence Mark, which used combinations of five past winners each to present the acting awards.
Additional talent joining the April 25 live broadcast on ABC will be announced later.
The 49-year-old Mexican actor has joined the cast of Steven Soderbergh’s next film, the New Line Max Original feature KIMI, with Zoë Kravitz on board to star.
The film will premiere exclusively on HBO Max. David Koepp penned the script and will produce with Michael Polaire.
Plot details are being kept under wraps.
The film would mark the second collaboration between Warner Bros Pictures Group, HBO Max and Soderbergh since the recent restructuring of the studio, and the third between Soderbergh and HBO Max. It follows No Sudden Move, the upcoming starry Max Original ensemble crime thriller from Warner Bros. Pictures that features Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, David Harbour, Amy Seimetz, Jon Hamm, Ray Liotta, Kieran Culkin, Brendan Fraser, Noah Jupe, Bill Duke, Frankie Shaw and Julia Fox.
Soderbergh’s most recent pic, Let Them All Talk, with Meryl Streep, premiered on HBO Max in December.
Vargas and Soderbergh’s partnership goes all the way back to Soderbergh’s Oscar-winning drug trafficking film Traffic, where Vargas played del Toro’s partner Manolo. Vargas would later appear in Soderbergh’s HBO series Mosaic.
He currently stars in the Netflix series Mr. Iglesiasand was previously on the series Luke Cage andSons of Anarchy. Recent film credits include Mark Carlson’s Princess of the Row opposite Martin Sheen and Ana Ortiz, The 33as Edison “Elvis” Peña, one of the 33 Chilean miners that was trapped for 69 days, and Diego Luna’s biopic Cesar Chavezas Richard Chavez opposite Michael Peña.
The 47-year-old Mexican actor/singer and Jane The Virgin scene-stealer has been cast in Steven Soderbergh’s next film, the New Line Max Original featureKIMI, with Zoë Kravitz on board to star. Byron Bowers is also on board.
The film will premiere exclusively on HBO Max. David Koepp penned the script and will produce along with Michael Polaire.
Plot details are being kept under wraps.
Camil can next be seen starring opposite Cecily Strong, Keegan-Michael Key, Jane Krakowski, Fred Armisen, Alan Cumming, Ariana DeBose and Kristen Chenoweth in the upcoming Apple+ musical comedy series Schmigadoon!from executive producer Lorne Michaels. He previously starred as fan and critic favorite in the Golden Globe-nominated and AFI Award-winning series Jane the Virgin. Most recently he starred in and executive produced the CBS comedy series Broke, becoming the first Latino lead in a comedy series for CBS since Desi Arnaz in I Love Lucy.
Camil is also teaming up with Jane the Virgin show creator Jennie Synder Urman and writer/comedian Al Magrigal to develop the single-camera comedy seriesGuerrillas through ABC, which he’ll co-executive produce and star in.
The 53-year-old Puerto Rican Oscar-winning actor has joined the cast of Steven Soderbergh’s latest film No Sudden Move(f.k.a Kill Switch).
The crime thriller, which is being produced under Soderbergh’s recently formed overall deal with HBO Max, has commenced production
In addition to del Toro, the All-Star ensemble cast includes Don Cheadle, David Harbour, Amy Seimetz, Jon Hamm, Ray Liotta, Kieran Culkin, Brendan Fraser, Noah Jupe, Bill Duke, Frankie Shaw and Julia Fox.
Written by Ed Solomon, the film is set in 1955 Detroit and centers on a group of small-time criminals who are hired to steal what they think is a simple document. When their plan goes horribly wrong, their search for who hired them – and for what ultimate purpose – weaves them through all echelons of the race-torn, rapidly changing city.
“The last time I shot a movie in Detroit with a great script and a great cast things worked out really well, so I’m very excited behind my mask right now,” said Soderbergh.
“It’s a pleasure to begin production on another project with Steven Soderbergh, Casey Silver and Ed Solomon,” remarked Casey Bloys, Chief Content Officer for HBO and HBO Max. “We have an incredible partner in Warner Bros. Pictures and an extraordinarily talented cast – we couldn’t be happier to bring No Sudden Move to HBO Max.”
The 55-year-old Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker, author, actor, and former special effects makeup artist will take part in Tribeca Enterprises and YouTube’s We Are One: A Global Film Festival.
The fest will stream exclusively on YouTubefor free and feature more than 100 films co-curated by 21 of the most renowned festivals, including the Cannes Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival.
The 10-day fest kicked off on Friday, May 29 and will not only provide entertainment but also offer relief to the COVID-19 pandemic via supporting organizations.
The truly global event will feature programming from different cultures all over the world, with films representing more than 35 countries and include 23 narrative and 8 documentary features, 57 narrative and 15 documentary short films, 15 archived talks along with 4 festival exclusives and 5 VR programming pieces.
The fest will include 13 world premieres, 31 online premieres and 5 international online premieres. Each selection was handpicked to give shine and highlight each participating festival.
“We are so excited to share the combined efforts of our festival partners and YouTube with the world this week,” said Tribeca Enterprises and Tribeca Film Festival Co-Founder and CEO Jane Rosenthal. “Together, we were able to curate a compelling slate of programming that succinctly reflects the subtle variations in style that make each festival so special. We Are One: A Global Film Festival will offer audiences an opportunity to not only celebrate the art of film, but the unique qualities that make each story we watch so memorable.”
The fest will include the world premiere of Ricky Powell: The Individualist, which spotlights the titular legendary street photographer featuring interviews with Natasha Lyonne and LL Cool J.
Eeb Allay Ooo! will make its online debut and introduce a whole new audience to New Delhi’s professional “monkey repellers”. The satirical film won Mumbai Film Festival’s Golden Gateway Award.
The iconic Joan Chen will present the world premiere of Iron Hammer, a documentary about legendary, trailblazing Chinese Olympic volleyball star Jenny Lang Ping.
There will also be a lineup of specially-curated talks from past festivals as well as new discussions. Talks will feature del Toro, Francis Ford Coppola with Steven Soderbergh, Song Kang-ho and Bong Joon-ho, Jane Campion and Claire Denis.
In addition to features, audiences will be able to access over 50 narrative and documentary shorts such as the world premiere of Japanese narrative short Yalta Conference Online (wt), which was created exclusively for the fest by director Koji Fukada. The fest will also include the global premiere of the Third Eye Blind documentary short Motorcycle Drive By, as well as shorts from Dreamworks Animation, Bilby, Marooned and Bird Karma.
360 VR selections will feature Emmy-nominated documentary Traveling While Black and Alteration, a sci-fi narrative starring Bill Skarsgard, as well as titles featuring John Legend, Oprah Winfrey and Lupita Nyong’o. On top of the film goodness, Questlove from the legendary Roots crew will perform a DJ set for your listening and dancing pleasure.
On the episodic side, We Are One will host the world premiere of Losing Alice, an Israeli female-fronted neo-noir psychological TV thriller as well as the two-part docuseries She Could Be Next which chronicles the experiences of women of color running for office, including Stacey Abrams and Rashida Tlaib.
In addition to Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance, Toronto and Tribeca, participating festival also include Annecy International Animation Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, Guadalajara International Film Festival,International Film Festival & Awards Macao (IFFAM), International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), Jerusalem Film Festival, Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI), Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival,Marrakech International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, San Sebastian International Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival and Tokyo International Film Festival.
The fest will provide COVID-19 relief through donations to the World Health Organization( WHO), UNICEF, UNHCR, Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, Leket Israel, GO Foundation and Give2Asia, among others. Audiences will be able to donate via a link on every film page.
Netflixhas committed to finance and release The Laundromat, the Steven Soderbergh-directed drama about the Panama Papers scandal starring the 58-year-old Spanish actor.
Banderas is part of a stellar cast that includes David Schwimmer,Gary Oldman and Meryl Streep. Other cast circling include Will Forte and Riley Keough.
The film has a script by Scott Z. Burns, based on the Jake Bernstein book Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite.
Schwimmer will play Matthew Quirk, an attorney who speaks on behalf of one of the insurance companies after twenty elderly passengers die on a boating excursion. The boating company learned its insurance isn’t the large company it thought it was, but merely just a P.O. box in Nevis. Quirk would eventually kill himself after seeing no way out of the liability situation, but the incident triggers lawyers, government officials, and more to track down these shell companies. Those investigations lead to the laundering geniuses at the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, who created hundreds of thousands of ‘companies’ to help the wealthy avoid paying taxes. Reams of documents were leaked from Mossack Fonseca in April by an anonymous whistleblower that bared embarrassing details on investments and money trails from politicians the world over, meant to evade taxes.
The scandal drew in several world leaders, including former UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Iceland Prime Minister Sigmunder Gunnlaugsson, the latter of whom resigned on April 5, 2016, after it was revealed he and his wife set up an offshore shell company in 2007 in the British Virgin Islands; he then sold his half of the company to his wife for $1 on the last day of 2009 to shield them from a new law that would have required him to declare his ownership as a conflict of interest. Among the swarms of famous people named in the leaked documents was current President of the United States Donald Trump— already embattled over charges his empire was built by avoiding taxes — and director Pedro Almodovar, Jackie Chan and Emma Watson.
Bernstein was part of a team of journalists who formed the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to break the Panama Papers story. The leak of data — 11 million records revealed — was the largest in corporate and government history.
The 57-year-old Spanish actor is reportedly circling The Laundromat, a Steven Soderbergh-directed drama about the Panama Papers scandal.
The film, written by Scott Z. Burns, is based on the Jake Bernstein book Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite.
Banderas isn’t the only high-profile actor circling the project. Gary Oldman and Meryl Streep are reportedly interested as well.
Netflix is among those considering the project, which is produced by Burns, Lawrence Grey, Soderbergh, Michael Sugar and First Look Media’s Topic Studios.
Netflix previously set a movie on the scandal by German journalists Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, who broke the story and wrote the book Panama Papers: Breaking the Story of How the World’s Rich and Powerful Hide Their Money. John Wells is producing that film.
The drama is the story of the revelations of reams of documents leaked from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca in April by an anonymous whistleblower that bared embarrassing details on investments and money trails from politicians the world over, meant to evade taxes.
The 41-year-old Spanish actor will star opposite Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn in the still untitled mother-daughter adventure comedy in a yet-to-be-revealed role.
The 20th Century Foxpic is directed by Jonathan Levine and written by Katie Dippold, who drew inspiration from her relationship with her mother.
Jaenada won a Goya Award for his portrayal of legendary flamenco dancer Camaron de la Isla in Camaron: When Flamenco Became Legend, and will next be seen opposite Blake Lively this summer in the Cannes Film Festival thriller The Shallows, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra.
The 53-year-old Spanish actor has joined the cast of AMC’s The Son.
Based on Philipp Meyer’s acclaimed novel, the film is a multi-generational epic telling of the story of America’s birth as a superpower through the bloody rise and fall of one Texas family.
Production will begin in Austin, Texas in June and the 10 one-hour episodes are set to premiere in 2017.
British director Tom Harper is helming the pilot.
He’ll play the patriarch whose family is the last of the wealthy Spanish aristocracy in South Texas. He’s a proud American, but must walk a careful line between his fellow ranchers and the Mexican radicals who employ terrorist tactics in an effort to drive the Anglos out of the Rio Grande Valley.
Bardem, the brother of Javier Bardem, recently completed work on New Regency’s Assassin’s Creed alongside Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, out later this year.
His past credits include Escobar: Paradise Lost opposite Benicio del Toro and Josh Hutcherson, Che: Part 2 for director Steven Soderbergh, and Scorpion In Love, which he wrote and starred in.
Meyer, Lee Shipman and Brian McGreevy wrote the adaptation.
The 40-year-old Spanish actor has joined the cast of Jaume Collet-Serra’s The Shallows opposite Blake Lively.
Jaenada, a Goya Award winner, is crossing over into the mainstream after bringing beloved Mexican comedic icon Cantinflas to the screen in the 2014 movie of the same name.
He has a small, but book-ended role in The Shallows.
Written by Anthony Jaswinski, the story centers on a young woman (Lively) who is grieving the loss her mother and surfing in an isolated area when she gets stranded on a buoy. Things take a turn for the worse when a gigantic great white shark comes between her and the shore.
The film was known as In The Deep when Sony Pictures won a bidding war for the spec script in September 2014, and brought Collet-Serra aboard in June.
Jaenada, who appears in The Weinstein Company’s 2016 offering Hands Of Stone opposite Robert De Niro, will play Carlos in the film, described as a workman who drives Lively’s character to the beach and then shows up again at the end of the film to check on her.
The film is casting now and has three other small supporting roles that are earmarked for Hispanic actors.
Jaenada won the coveted Goya (Spain’s equivalent of the Academy Award) for his portrayal of Camaron de la Isla, the legendary Spanish flamenco dancer, in 2005’s Camaron: When Flamenco Became Legend.
Cantinflas was Mexico’s 2015 foreign-language Oscar submission.
In addition, the actor had a starring role in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and a critically praised appearance in Steven Soderbergh’s Che.
