Carlo Mendez Taking Over Alvaro Orlando’s Role in Indie Film “The Legend of Jack and Diane”

Carlo Mendez is taking on a Legend(ary) role…

The 44-year-old Cuban American actor is set to take over Alvaro Orlando’s role in the indie The Legend of Jack and Diane, following Orlando’s departure due to a scheduling conflict.

Carlo Mendez

Mendez, whose credits include Parks and Recreation and 90210,  joins a cast led by Tom Sizemore, which also includes Robert LaSardo, David Timlinson and newcomer Lydia Zelmac, with production currently underway in and around the Los Angeles area.

Directed by Bruce Bellochi, the film is a revenge thriller, which takes its name from John Mellencamp’s classic song “Jack & Diane.” It centers, of course, on Jack (Tomlinson) and Diane (Zelmac), who decide to leave Indiana for a new life in Los Angeles. When the pair discover secrets about the death of Diane’s mother, their worst fears are confirmed, and they are forced to run. On the way to Los Angeles to confront evil, they create a hit list to exact revenge on everyone involved.

Mendez will play Detective Stanley Montana, the son of LaSardo’s reputed drug lord Cesar. Never accepted by his father, Montana has since fallen from his family’s good graces after choosing to become a cop.

Bellochi, Zelmac and Rick Geller scripted the project, which was originally set up as an episodic series for HBO but lost its footing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with Bellochi and Geller reworking it as a feature. Bellochi and Geller are exec producing it with Jackie Kallen.

The younger brother of actress Eva Mendes, Mendez has garnered 64 screen credits over the course of his career, finding most within the last 15 years. He’s primarily known for his work in television, on series like NBC’s Parks and Recreation and The CW’s 90210.

de la Reguera to Star in David Lynch’s New “Twin Peaks” Installment

Ana de la Reguera’s career has reached a new peak

The 38-year-old Mexican actress has booked an arc on the upcoming new installment of David Lynch’s groundbreaking 1990 supernatural mystery series Twin Peaks.

Ana de la Reguera

de la Reguera joins returning star Kyle MacLachlan, who is reprising his role as Special Agent Dale Cooper from the original series.

New cast additions for the new season, set for an early 2017 premiere, are also believed to include Naomi Watts, Laura Dern, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Amanda Seyfried, Ashley Judd, Tom Sizemore, Balthazar Getty, Patrick FischlerDavid DastmalchianGrant Goodeve, Larry Clarke and Caleb Landry Jones.

Lynch is directing the new installment from a script he co-wrote with fellow Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost.

de la Reguera has recurred as Elisa Alvaro on Narcos and Paola on Jane The Virgin. Her other credits include Eastbound & Down, The Blacklist, Royal Pains and Anger Management.

XLrator Media Acquires U.S. Rights to Vargas’ “Crossing Point”

Jacob Vargas’ latest project is crossing into the United States…

XLrator Media has acquired the U.S. rights to Crossing Point, the film starring the 44-year-old Mexican actor.

Jacob Vargas

Along with Vargas, the action-thriller stars Rudy Youngblood (Apocalypto), Luke Goss (the Death Race series, Blade II), Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan), Paulina Gaitan (Sin Nombre, Netflix’s Narcos), María Gabriela de Faría (Nickelodeon’s Isa TKM) and newcomer Shawn Lock.

It’s directed by Daniel Zirilli from a script by Paul Dominic and Lock.

Compound B, the genre division of Bleiberg Entertainment, is representing the sales rights to the film and will be introducing Crossing Point to international buyers at the American Film Market 2015.

XLrator Media will release the film in 2016 through its Turbo action label.

Trailer Released for “Reach Me,” Starring Trejo, Sylvester Stallone and Kelsey Grammer

Danny Trejo’s latest project will have a different kind of reach

The 70-year-old Mexican American actor, who often stars in action films as hypermasculine characters, villains and anti-heroes, is starring opposite Sylvester Stallone and Kelsey Grammer in the dramedy Reach Me.

Danny Trejo

Trejo portrays Vic in the film, which centers on a group of people who all have a connection to a self-help book authored by a reclusive former football coach.

Directed by John Herzfeld, the indie film also stars Lauren Cohan, Terry Crews, Nelly, Kevin Connoly, Tom Sizemore, Ryan Kwanten, Kyra Sedgwick, Danny Trejo, Tom Berenger and Danny Aiello.

“It’s a feel-good movie with an upbeat, inspirational story. It’s about a dozen broken characters who get a second chance in life by coming into contact with this book,” says Herzfeld.

The project initially launched a Kickstarter campaign, but later switched to a similar yet more flexible platform, Indiegogo, which allows international contributions and pledges beyond $10k.

Mexican Siblings Aim to Increase the Latino Presence in Hollywood

They’ve tasted success at the Sundance Film Festival with their film Goats, as well as a screening of their film Cellmates through internet VOD and cable… And, now Juan Carlos and Olga Segura are ready to make their moviemaking dreams come true while helping to increase the Latino presence in Hollywood.

The Mexican siblings strongly believe in the potential of Latino talent to bring to the screen stories that aren’t only relevant within the Hispanic community, but that touch the world with universal themes like racism.

Juan Carlos & Olga Segura

“The power to tell stories is a very important tool that gives us the opportunity to change minds. If just a single person benefits from my work, that’s enough for me,” Olga, an actress and producer tells Efe.

Olga started her career as an actress in the theater production of “Pizza Man.” Later, she had the chance to act in the Cellmates, the story of a racist white American (Tom Sizemore) who is imprisoned with two Mexicans and discovers that, in the end, we’re not so different from one another.

Meanwhile, Juan Carlos began his own filmmaking career as a producer in 2009, blindly founding the company Producciones along with actor Hector Jimenez.

In addition to Cellmates and Goats, which features David Duchovny and Vera Farmiga, the company will screen several other productions this year, including Hidden Moon and Todo un hombre, starring Aaron Diaz.