Jharrel Jerome to Star as Anthony Robles in “Unstoppable”

Jharrel Jerome is unstoppable

The 25-year-old Afro-Dominican American actor, an Emmy winner and EP/star of the upcoming Prime Video series I’m a Virgo that just premiered at SXSW, has signed on to star in Unstoppable, the film starring Jennifer Lopez and directed by Billy Goldenberg.

Jharrel Jerome The film follows the true story of Anthony Robles, a three-time All-American wrestler born with one leg who won a national championship at Arizona State.

Robles will reportedly be heavily involved in the project, which Amazon Studios is in talks to acquire.

The second big project from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity and Amazon is coming together rather quickly before the April 5 opening of their first movie, Airwhich is getting a theatrical release and debuted at SXSW on Saturday. Artists Equity is co-founded by RedBird Capital.

Robles was born without a right leg. At the age of 14, he tried wrestling for the first time, at a mere 90 pounds. His first year he went 5-8, but remained determined that he could be a champion in the sport one day. Robles is also an inspirational speaker.

In 2019 he broke the Guinness world record for most pull-ups in a minute with 62 reps.

Jerome won an Emmy for Outstanding Actor in a Limited Series for the Ava DuVernay Netflix series When They See Us. His other credits include the film Concrete Cowboy and the Stephen King series Mr. Mercedes. He’ll soon be seen co-starring in HBO Max’s Steven Soderbergh series Full Circle.

Jerome is an EP on the Boots Riley Amazon series I’m a Virgo. The darkly comedic, fantastical coming-of-age joyride center son Cootie (Jerome), a 13-foot-tall young Black man in Oakland, CA. Having grown up hidden away, passing time on a diet of comic books and TV shows, he escapes to experience the beauty and contradictions of the real world. He forms friendships, finds love, navigates awkward situations, and encounters his idol, a real-life superhero named The Hero, played by Walton Goggins. I’m A Virgo is a mythical odyssey that questions the purpose of the mythical odyssey.

Karol G Makes History as “Mañana Será Bonito” Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart

Karol G is celebrating a historic moment…

The 32-year-old Colombian singer and songwriter’s new album Mañana Será Bonito is making an unprecedented splash on the Billboard 200 albums chart dated March 11, as the set debuts atop the tally.

Karol GIt’s both the first No. 1 for the artist and the chart’s first No. 1 all-Spanish-language album by a female artist.

“I feel so very special. More than happiness I feel special,” Karol G tells Billboard, who spoke with her as the news was reported. “My last album did so well and had all those big hits, like ‘Bichota,’ so the bar was high. But I didn’t want to make music because I felt pressure. I wanted to make the music I wanted to make, and the fact that I’ve hit No. 1 with an album that is so personal is enormous.” 

Previously, only two all-Spanish albums led the list, both by Bad Bunny. (Un Verano Sin Ti in 2022 and El Ultimo Tour del Mundo in 2020).

Mañana Será Bonito earned 94,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending March 2, according to Luminate. Its starting sum was largely powered by streaming activity.

Of Mañana Será Bonito’s 94,000 equivalent album units earned, SEA units comprise 83,000 (equaling 118.73 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 17 tracks), album sales comprise 10,000 and TEA units comprise 1,000. The album’s sales were largely powered by its digital download album (8,500), though there was a CD available in limited quantities, selling about 1,500 copies. The digital album was also offered in two alternative cover variants on Karol G’s official webstore.

Mañana Será Bonito logs the largest week, by equivalent album units earned, for a Latin album by a woman since the chart began measuring by units in December of 2014. (Latin albums are defined as those that have hit or are eligible for Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart.) Further, as Mañana Será Bonito generated 118.73 million official on-demand streams for its songs, the set registers the biggest streaming week ever for a Latin album by a woman.

Mañana Será Bonito is also the first Latin album by a woman to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 since 1995, when Selena’s posthumously-released, mostly-Spanish effort Dreaming of You topped the list for one week. (The 13-song Dreaming of You album has six tracks in Spanish, five in English and two duets that blend English and Spanish.)

Only three mostly-non-English-language albums by women have reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 – the all-Spanish Mañana Será BonitoDreaming of You and The Singing Nun’s all-French-language self-titled album in 1963.

Karol G made her Billboard chart debut in 2016 and has been a force on Billboard’s Latin genre charts ever since, notching 17 top 10 hits on the Hot Latin Songs chart – including five No. 1s (through the most recently published chart, dated March 4). On the Top Latin Albums list, she’s previously logged a trio of top two-charting sets, including one No. 1, her previous release, KG0516, in 2021.

Mañana Será Bonito is the fourth charting album for Karol G on the all-genre Billboard 200, but first to reach the top 10. She previously visited the list with KG0516 (No. 20 in 2021), Ocean (No. 54 in 2019) and Unstoppable (No. 192 in 2017). Preceding the release of the new album, Karol had logged five top 40-charting hit songs on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, but with three of them coming in 2022: “Mamiii,” with Becky G (No. 15), “Provenza” (No. 25) and “Gatubela,” with Maldy (No. 37). Both “Mamiii” and “Provenza” became Karol’s first top 10-charting hits on the all-genre Streaming Songs chart, reaching Nos. 5 and 10, respectively. (Both “Provenza” and “Gatubela” are included on Mañana Será Bonito.)

With Karol G’s Mañana Será Bonito replacing SZA’s SOS at No. 1, it’s the first time a woman has replaced another woman atop the list in over a year. It last happened when a trio of leading ladies traded off the top spot from November 20, 2021-December 4, 2021. Summer Walker’s Still Over It debuted at No. 1 on the on November 20 chart, Taylor Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version) then opened atop the list on November 27, and Adele’s 30 bowed at No. 1 on the December 4 chart.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.

Rosario Dawson to Help Reveal This Year’s SAG Awards Nominations

Rosario Dawson is helping with a big reveal…

The 42-year-old Puerto Rican and Cuban American actress and activist will team up with Vanessa Hudgens to announce this year’s SAG Awards nominations on Wednesday, January 12, at 10:00 am ET/7 am PT via Instagram Live.

Rosario DawsonThis marks the second consecutive year the SAG nominations will be announced via Instagram Live as part of the @sagawardsInstagram Stories.

With the Golden Globes mired in a diversity scandal, resulting in a non-telecast of the awards show on NBC, the SAG Awards this year reps the first big awards show to honor the best of actors and actresses in television and film for 2021.

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher will give an introduction before the SAG nominations are revealed.

Nominations for the Outstanding Action Performances by Television and Film ensembles will follow, with announcements made by SAG Awards Committee members Jason George and Elizabeth McLaughlin.

The 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will be simulcast live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, February 27, 2022 at 8:00 pm ET / 5:00 pm PT from The Barker Hangar in Santa Monica.

Dawson recently starred in the Hulu series Dopesickand stars next in the Disney+/Lucasfilm series Ahsoka as Ahsoka Tano and the HBO Max/DC series DMZ

She’s filming Disney’s new Haunted Mansion movie with Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, LaKeith Stanfield and Danny DeVito.

Her feature credits include Harmony Korine’s KidsSpike Lee’s He Got Game and The 25th Houras well as Alexander, Rent, Clerks II, Top Five, Trance, Unstoppable and Men in Black II, as well as the Sin City franchise.

For her performance in Seven Pounds, she won Best Actress in a Motion Picture Award at the 2009 NAACP Image Awards.

Diego Calva to Star in Damien Chazelle’s Hollywood Period Feature “Babylon”

Diego Calva is heading to Babylon

The Mexican actor will join the ensemble cast of Damien Chazelle’s Hollywood period Paramount feature Babylon.

Diego Calva

Calva joins the previously announced cast, which includes Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Jovan Adepo and Li Jun Li.

The project, which is set for a Christmas Day 2022 release and a January 6, 2023 expansion, is an R-rated drama, set in the shifting moment in Hollywood when the industry turned from silent film to talkies.

In addition, Calva has signed with WME.

The Mexico City native has starred in the Netflix series Unstoppabland will appear in the upcoming season of the streamer’s Narcos: Mexico

He previously starred in I Promise You Anarchy, which was screened at the Contemporary World Cinema section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. The feature from Julio Hernández Cordón won several awards at festivals like Mix Brasil, Sao Paulo International Film Festival, Lisbon International Film Festival, Costa Rica International Film Festival with Calva receiving the Best Actor award at the Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana, Cuba.

Anthony Robles’ Inspiring Story to Be Made Into Film

Anthony Robles’ life story is headed to the big screen…

Dany Garcia and Dwayne Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions has teamed up with 101 Studios on Unstoppable, a film that tells the inspiring story of the 31-year-old Latino wrestler.

Anthony Robles

Despite being born with only one leg to a single-parent family living on the wrong side of the tracks, Robles overcame every obstacle to become an undefeated collegiate wrestling star, three-time All-American, 2011 NCAA National Champion, two-time ESPY Award winner and a National Wrestling Hall of Famei nductee.

John Hindman wrote the script, based on Unstoppable: From Underdog to Undefeated: How I Became a Champion, a 2012 memoir Robles wrote with Austin Murphy

“Words cannot express how honored I am to have my story made into a film. Because I was born missing my leg, my entire life I’ve had to deal with people having low expectations of me,” says Robles. “When I got into wrestling, most people thought it was impossible for me to become even an average wrestler. I’m hopeful that people who see Unstoppable will walk away believing that you should never let your challenges define you. If you have a goal, go after it with everything you’ve got. Nothing is impossible.”

“Our entire Seven Bucks team is passionate about sharing stories that inspire and resonate on a global scale. We’ve had an eye on Anthony’s story for a long time and have been deeply moved by his perseverance that proves nothing is impossible. The powerful themes of redemption and tackling life’s obstacles are very familiar to us, we are excited to bring this triumphant underdog story to life.

“Anthony’s story is really special and reveals the passion, determination and fearlessness needed to overcome challenges,” Seven Bucks’ Hiram Garcia added. “Investing in the right stories with universal appeal is a huge priority for us at Seven Bucks, but more importantly, we want to share stories like Anthony’s that motivate the world.”

David Glasser, CEO of 101 Studios, said the company was “moved and inspired by Anthony’s triumphs on the mat, but—even more so—his triumphs of spirit and determination in his personal life. Unstoppable embodies the types of films that we want to bring to the screen: films that resonate universally because of their power to connect with audiences.”

The project will follow a fast track to production.