Lisa Vidal to Star in the Crime-Action Heist Feature “Shelter”

Posted on July 4, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Lisa Vidal is sheltering…

The 56-year-old Puerto Rican actress will star in the crime-action heist feature Shelter.

Vidal joins a cast that includes Cam Gigandet, Jaina Lee Ortiz, Carlos Miranda and Hollywood newcomer Sasha Merci.

In pre-production, filming is scheduled to start shortly in Los Angeles on the movie about the head of a secret organization who assembles a crew to steal back artwork from a neo-Nazi billionaire oligarch who plundered it during World War II.

Produced by Jolene Rodriguez of Broken English productions and financed by Ruben Islas’ Grandave Capital, the film is an original screenplay by Michael Corcoran, directed by Anthony Nardolillo.

“I’m thrilled to work with such a talented group. I’ve followed many of their careers and to make a movie with them is such a privilege. Shelter is a great example of taking any script and making it inclusive. It takes effort but it’s possible and it matters,” said Rodriguez.

Vidal has starred on ABC’s The Baker and The Beauty, BET TV series Being Mary Jane and Grey’s Anatomy.

Ortiz will star in her fifth season of Shondaland’s ABC series Station 19 after a successful run in Fox’s Rosewood and a consequent role in Shooter.

Miranda will join the cast of ABC’s Station 19 as a series regular in the coming season and has had recurring roles in Amazon Original series Bosch and Comedy Central’s Ana as well as being a series regular in Starz series Vida.

Merci recently starred in the HBO feature film De Lo Mio.

Rafael Nadal to Lead Spanish Team at Next Month’s ATP Cup

Posted on January 5, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Rafael Nadal is headed back to the court next month…

The 34-year-old Spanish tennis star is set to return for the ATP Cup, the season-opening men’s team tennis event, starting February 1, but the United States will be missing because of a change in format that has halved the field.

Nadal, last year’s runner-up, will be joined in the tournament by last year’s ATP Cup champion Novak Djokovic. His Spanish team includes Roberto Bautista Agut, Marcel Granollers and Pablo Carreno Busta.

Diego Schwartzman, Guido Pella, Horacio Zeballos and Maximo Gonzalez will represent Argentina in this year’s tournament, while Alex de Minaur will play for Australia and Steven Diez will represent Canada.

The inaugural event last year featured 24 teams and was played in three Australian cities, with Djokovic’s Serbia team beating Nadal and Spain in the final at Sydney’s Ken Rosewall Arena.

The February 1-5 second edition will involve 12 teams and be played entirely at Melbourne Park amid COVID-19 restrictions, along with WTA and ATP tournaments, in the week leading into the Australian Open.

The draw will be held on January 20, with teams divided into four groups. The winner of each round-robin group will advance to the semifinals.

Qualification for the ATP Cup was based on the ranking of each country’s top player, with Australia included on a wild-card entry. Other competing countries include Austria, Russia, Greece, Germany, Argentina, Italy, Japan, France and Canada.

All players arriving in Melbourne for the Australian Open will be required to quarantine for 14 days before the delayed start of the season’s first major. The Australian Open is usually staged in the last two weeks of January, but it has been pushed back to February 8-21 because of travel and other restrictions in place for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Qualifying for the men’s singles draw will take place in Doha, Qatar, and for the women’s in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, both running January 10-13.

As with other sports, the international tennis calendar was disrupted in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, including the postponement of the French Open‘s start from May to September, and the cancellation of Wimbledon for the first time since World War II.

HBO Max Launches 60 Episodes of Lynda Carter’s Original “Wonder Woman” Series

Posted on December 24, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Lynda Carter is spinning her way onto the Max…

The original Wonder Woman television series, starring the 69-year-old half-Mexican American actress/singer, has launched on HBO Max – just days before the latest Gal Gadot-fronted feature film drops on the streamer.

The WarnerMedia-owned platform launched 60 episodes of the 1970s series on Wednesday December 23. It features The New Original Wonder Woman television movie pilot that aired in November 1975 before the series started properly in April 1976.

It starred Carter, who also stars in The CW’s Supergirl and has a small cameo in the upcoming WW84 film, as the Amazonian princess, initially rescuing fallen American pilot Major Steve Trevor, played by Lyle Waggoner.

The pilot and the 13-episode first season aired on ABC, while Seasons 2 and 3 moved to CBS. The first season was set in the 1940s during World War II, while Seasons 2 and 3 are set in the 1970s and known as The New Adventures of Wonder Woman with a new cast apart from Carter and Waggoner.

It comes as Wonder Woman 1984, directed by Patty Jenkins based on a script she wrote with Geoff Johns and David Callaham, launches on HBO Max in the U.S. on December 25 (at noon ET).

https://twitter.com/RealLyndaCarter/status/1341779691938734080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1341779691938734080%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdeadline.com%2F2020%2F12%2Flynda-carter-wonder-woman-hbo-max-wonder-woman-1984-1234661007%2F

Noah Centineo to Star Opposite Dwayne Johnson in New Line/DC’s “Black Adam”

Posted on July 19, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Noah Centineo is splitting atoms…

The 24-year-old part-Puerto Rican actor and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before star has joined New Line/DC’s Dwayne Johnson film Black Adam.

Centineo will play Atom Smasher, a character who can control his molecular structure with the ability to manipulate his size, strength and durability.

Jaume Collet-Serra, who also directed Johnson in Disney’s Jungle Cruise is directing from a script by Adam Sztykiel.

Black Adam, which is set to shoot in Georgia during early 2021, will be part of the first-ever DC FanDome event on August 22.

Centineo will next appear in the World War II drama The Diary and To All the Boys 3.

Centineo is also a founder of Favored Nations, a non-profit organization committed to social change.

Bleecker Street Acquires Distribution Rights to Noomi Rapace’s Revenge Thriller “The Secrets We Keep”

Posted on May 13, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Noomi Rapace’s secretis coming out…

Bleecker Streethas acquired the U.S. distribution rights to The Secrets We Keep, the period revenge thriller directed by Yuval Adler that stars the 40-year-old half-Spanish actress, Joel Kinnamanand Chris Messina.

Rapace stars as Maja, a woman rebuilding her life along with her husband, Lewis (Messina), in America after World War II. One day she encounters an eerily familiar figure (Kinnaman) from her past life – but is he really the man she thinks he is? Convinced he is, Maja takes things into her own hands and kidnaps him, setting in motion a series of memories and events that will change her whole perception of the truth.

Amy Seimetz also stars. Ryan Covington penned the script.

“Yuval’s film is propelled by exciting performances from Noomi, Joel and Chris in this chilling post-WWII thriller,” said Andrew Karpen, CEO of Bleecker Street. “We look forward to bringing the film to audiences nationwide.”The film hails from AGC Studiosin partnership with Ingenious Mediaand Fibonacci Films. No release plan was revealed.

Priscilla Delgado to Star in Amazon’s “A League of Their Own” Pilot

Posted on November 12, 2019 by Tom Castaneda

Priscilla Delgado is in a league of her own…

The 17-year-old Puerto Rican actress has been cast in Amazon’s hourlong pilot A League of Their Own, an adaptation of Penny Marshall’s 1992 feature film of the same name, from writers/executive producers Abbi Jacobson and Will Graham and Sony Pictures Television.

Delgado joins a cast that includes Kelly McCormack, with D’Arcy Carden and Jacobson, who are finalizing their acting deals, and Gbemisola Ikumelo, who is set.

Like the movie, A League of Their Own the series is about a women’s professional baseball league during World War II.

Delgado plays Izzy, an optimistic and fun girl who’s probably the youngest player to try out for the Rockford Peaches. The brave teenager left Cuba and landed in the Midwest just to play the game.

Delgado previously appeared in Pedro Almodovar’s Julieta, Abracadabra and The Evil That Men Do.

Lionsgate to Develop R.J. Palacio’s Graphic Novel “White Bird: A Wonder Story” Into a Feature Film

Posted on October 2, 2019 by Tom Castaneda

R.J. Palacio will see her latest project on the big screen.

Lionsgate is set to develop the 56-year-old Colombian American writer and New York Times best selling author’s graphic novel White Bird: A Wonder Story into a feature.

White Bird, which hit bookstores this week via Alfred A. Knopf,inhabits the same universe as Palicio’s acclaimed work Wonder, which centered on young Auggie Pullman, a boy born with facial differences, and his transition to a mainstream elementary school.

The Wonderfeature was a critical and commercial success, starring Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson, and Jacob Tremblay.

Wonderproducers David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman of Mandeville Films, as well as Palacio, will once again produce the adaptation.

White Birdfollows a young Jewish girl hidden away by a boy and his family in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. Recounted by Grandmere to her grandson, Julian, a character already known to those familiar with Wonder, Grandmere’s story about her childhood—her fairy-tale life before the war, how everything abruptly changed when the Nazi’s occupied France, and how the boy she and her classmates once shunned becomes her savior and best friend — is transformational for Julian. It is his evolution, as well as Grandmere’s extraordinary story, that helps White Bird movingly demonstrate the power of kindness to change hearts, build bridges, and even save lives.

James Myers will oversee the project on behalf of Lionsgate.

Wonder, which was released in 2017, grossed over $305 million worldwide, while the novel, released in 2012, spent seven years on the New York Times bestseller list. Recently, Lionsgate, Broadway producer Jill Furman, and Palacio announced that the title is being developed into a stage musical.

Palacio’s books have sold more than 15 million copies with editions published in 53 languages.

Helena Bonham Carter In Talks to Play Princess Margaret on Netflix’s “The Crown”

Posted on January 5, 2018 by Tom Castaneda

Helena Bonham Carter may have a new crowning achievement on her resume…

The 51-year-old part-Spanish actress is in talks to portray Princess Margaret on the upcoming third season of Netflix’s The Crown, according to sources.

Netflix had no comment.

Carter would take over the role played in the first two seasons by Vanessa Kirby.

The second season premiered December 8 on Netflix. In it, Margaret married Antony Armstrong-Jones, the Earl of Snowdon (Matthew Goode) and the season ended with her pregnant with one of their children.

The Crown, created by Peter Morgan, tells the inside story of Queen Elizabeth II’s early reign as the fragile social order established after World War II breaks apart.

It was announced earlier that Olivia Colman would be replacing Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth in the upcoming third and fourth seasons, which have not yet been ordered but are expected. Morgan previously said he intended to replace key cast members in later seasons, to better portray the characters as they aged.

Carter, star of Sweeney Todd: The Demon of Fleet Street and Alice in Wonderland among others, will next be seen in Warner Bros.’ Ocean’s 8, the female-driven caper spinoff directed by Gary Ross. She’s also the voice of Margaret Conroy in Fun Academy Motion Pictures’ first animated family film Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero.

Wilmer Valderrama Acquires Rights to Dave Gutierrez’s WWII Book “Patriots from the Barrio”

Posted on September 30, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

It’s a Patriots mission for Wilmer Valderrama…

The 37-year-old Colombian and Venezuelan American actor/producer and former That ’70s Show star and his WV Entertainment have acquired film and television rights to Patriots from the Barrio, Dave Gutierrez’s 2014 book that delves into the history of a segregated U.S. Army combat unit comprised entirely of Mexican Americans from South Texas that was part of the first division to set foot in Europe in World War II.

Gutierrez’s book came about while he was researching a relative, Ramon G. Gutierrez, who during the war was captured and escaped twice, both times able to make it back across Allied lines. He later received the Silver Star and three Purple Hearts, and the Soviet Union gave him the Order of the Patriotic War. His Company E in the 36th Division fought in Italy at San Pietro in the Liri Valley, and in 1944 was nearly wiped out in the Battle of Ripaldo River, one of the U.S. Army’s biggest losses of WWII.

“During Hispanic Heritage Month, this story is especially timely, and I’m honored as a proud Latin American to amplify the courage and contributions of these incredible men,” Valderrama said.

Valderrama, who joined as a regular on CBS’ NCIS last year, also has the animated film Charming coming next year on which his WV Entertainment serves as a producer.

Isaac to Star in the Spy Thriller “The Garbo Project”

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Oscar Issac is going to war…

The 37-year-old Guatemalan and Cuban American actor will star in The Garbo Project, a spy thriller in the works from Storyscape Entertainment.

Scripted by William Wheeler, the film is set during World War II. It’s based on the true story of Juan Pujol Garcia, an eccentric double-agent who, with no military or covert training, somehow persuaded both the Germans and the British to hire him as a spy. As it turned out, his real allegiance was to England, and working closely with MI5, he created a fictional network of 27 spies said to be spread out over England, Scotland, and Ireland. His ruse enabled the English to deceive the Germans about the invasion of Normandy.

Isaac, who broke out after his role in Bourne Legacy, has starred in the blockbuster hits X-Men: Apocalypse and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Hispanically Yours

Celebrating the Latino Influence

Tag Archives: World War II