IFC Midnight Acquires North American Rights to Genesis Rodriguez’s Arctic Thriller “Centigrade”

Genesis Rodriguez is bringing the chill (and thrill) to the United States… 

IFC Midnight has acquired the North American rights to Brendan Walsh’s contained Arctic thriller Centigrade, starring the 32-year-old Cuban and Venezuelan actress.

Génesis Rodríguez

Based on true events, Rodriguez and Vincent Piazzastar in the story about a 2002 incident when a young American couple traveled to the arctic mountains of Norway. After pulling over during a snowstorm, they wake up trapped in their SUV, buried underneath layers of snow and ice. It’s soon revealed that the woman is eight months pregnant. Amid escalating tension between them and dwindling supplies, the couple battles -30C temperatures, hallucinations and hypothermia in their struggle to survive.

The completed film was written by Daley Nixon and Walsh.

“It’s a thrill and honor for me and the entire Centigradeteam to be premiering in North America with IFC,” said Walsh. “It makes all the cold days shooting a car in a freezer totally worthwhile. They are true champions of Independent Film and fully recognize the efforts film makers go through to make their film different and special. We couldn’t be happier with our North American distributors and look forward to finding international distributors in Berlin.”

Rodriguez’s previous credits include Man on a LedgeCasa de Mi PadreWhat to Expect When You’re ExpectingThe Last StandTusk and Run All Night.

Zayas to Star in the Mob Thriller “The Wannabe”

David Zayas is officially a wannabe

The 51-year-old Puerto Rican actor, best known for his role as Angel Batista on Showtime’s Dexter, has joined the cast of the mob thriller The Wannabe.

David Zayas

Zayas joins Golden Door’s Vincenzo Amato, Moonrise Kingdom’s Neal Huff, GoodfellasMike Starr and The Town’s Slaine as the final additions to the film’s cast.

The Wannabe, which will begin shooting on October 28 in Brooklyn, stars Patricia Arquette, Vincent Piazza and Michael Imperioli and will be directed by Nick Sandow, who also wrote the script.

Martin Scorsese and Dean Devlin are executive producing the film, which is set in New York City in the early ’90s and follows a man obsessed with mob culture (Piazza) who attempts to fix the jury in the trial of John Gotti. But his plans are foiled, so he sets off with Rose (Arquette), a neighborhood fixture, on a ride worthy of mob lore.

Zayas, who portrayed Enrique Morales on the HBO prison drama series Oz, recently signed on to Sony‘s new Annie film.