Penélope Cruz to Receive Variety’s Creative Impact in Acting Award

Posted on December 20, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Penélope Cruz is making a creative impact…

Variety will honor the 49-year-old Spanish Oscar-winning actress, who is currently earning praise for her performance in Ferrari, with the Creative Impact in Acting Award at the upcoming Palm Springs International Film Festival.

The award will be presented as part of Variety’s annual 10 Directors to Watch and Creative Impact Awards brunch on January 5 at the Parker Palm Springs.

Cruz will be recognized for her accomplished career as a four-time Oscar nominee known for her daring, multidimensional and unforgettable performances in Volver, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Nine and Parallel Mothers.

Her latest film, Ferrari, was directed by Michael Mann and stars Adam Driver as the iconic race car driver and entrepreneur. The film premiered at the Venice International Film Festival and comes out in theaters on December 25.

It was named to National Board of Review’s list of the year’s top 10 films and earned Cruz a Gotham Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Performance.

“More than 30 years after her stunning film debut in Bigas Lunas’ Venice Festival prize winner, Jamón Jamón, Penelope Cruz continues startling global film audiences with her limitless versatility in films created by the world’s finest directors,” said Variety’s Executive Vice President Content, Steven Gaydos. “Her long association with Pedro Almodóvar has won her major accolades, and she took home the Oscar for Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona. She’s now at the peak of her powers in Michael Mann’s masterpiece, Ferrari. It’s Variety‘s great honor to present our Creative Impact in Acting to Penelope Cruz, for both her illustrious career and for her powerful performance as the unforgettable woman at the heart of Ferrari.’

Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos and Killers of the Flower Moon co-writer Eric Roth are also set to receive honors at the January 5 event. Variety  will announce its 10 Directors to Watch on January 3.

The Palm Springs International Film Festival runs January 4 to 15. For additional information visit http://www.psfilmfest.org.

Penelope Cruz Earns AACTA International Awards Nomination from Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts

Posted on December 15, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Penelope Cruz has raced her way to recognition Down Under.

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts has released the nominations for its 13th annual AACTA International Awards, with the 49-year-old Spanish Oscar-winning actress earning a nod.

Cruz is nominated for her acclaimed performance as Laura Ferrari, the wife of Adam Driver’s Enzo Ferrari, in Ferrari.

Cruz’s performance as a scorned wife has earned her Oscar buzz.

But Cruz isn’t the only Hispanic artist to earn a nod…

Jacob Elordi is nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category.

The 26-year-old half-Spanish Australian actor earned the nod for his performance in Saltburn.

In the television categories, Pedro Pascal has received a call out…

The 48-year-old Chilean actor is nominated for his acclaimed performance in HBO’s The Last of Us.

“The 13th AACTA International Awards nominations reflect the pinnacle of global film and television excellence, celebrating the incredible achievements and exceptional talent that have captivated audiences worldwide,” AACTA CEO Damian Trewhella said. “We look forward to further honoring these nominees at our ceremony on the Gold Coast, Australia as we celebrate the best in entertainment on a global stage.”

The awards will be handed out in February 10 at AACTA Awards in Queensland.

Here are the nominees for the 13th annual AACTA International Awards:

FILM

Best Film

American Fiction
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things

Best Lead Actor

Bradley Cooper – Maestro
Leonardo DiCaprio – Killers of the Flower Moon
Cillian Murphy – Oppenheimer
Andrew Scott – All of Us Strangers
Jeffrey Wright – American Fiction

Best Lead Actress

Cate Blanchett – The New Boy
Lily Gladstone – Killers of the Flower Moon
Carey Mulligan – Maestro
Margot Robbie – Barbie
Emma Stone – Poor Things

Best Supporting Actor

Matt Damon – Oppenheimer
Robert De Niro – Killers of the Flower Moon
Robert Downey Jr. – Oppenheimer
Jacob Elordi – Saltburn
Ryan Gosling – Barbie

Best Supporting Actress

Penélope Cruz – Ferrari
Vanessa Kirby – Napoleon
Julianne Moore – May December
Rosamund Pike – Saltburn
Da’Vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers

Best Direction in Film

Barbie – Greta Gerwig
Killers of the Flower Moon – Martin Scorsese
Maestro – Bradley Cooper
Oppenheimer – Christopher Nolan
Poor Things – Yorgos Lanthimos

Best Screenplay in Film

American Fiction — Cord Jefferson
Barbie — Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach
Maestro — Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer
Oppenheimer — Christopher Nolan
Poor Things — Tony McNamara

TELEVISION

Best Drama Series

Beef
Succession
The Crown
The Last of Us
Yellow Jackets

Best Comedy Series

Only Murders in the Building
Sex Education
Ted Lasso
The Bear
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Best Actor in a Series

Kieran Culkin – Succession
Matthew Macfadyen – Succession
Pedro Pascal – The Last of Us
Jeremy Strong – Succession
Jeremy Allen White – The Bear

Best Actress in a Series

Elizabeth Debicki – The Crown
Helen Mirren – 1923
Bella Ramsey – The Last of Us
Sarah Snook – Succession
Ali Wong – Beef

Neon Releases Official Trailer for Adam Driver & Penelope Cruz’s “Ferrari”

Posted on October 18, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Penelope Cruz is driving interest in her latest film project…

The official trailer has been released for Michael Mann’s Ferrari, starring the 49-year-old Spanish Oscar-winning actress opposite Adam Driver.

“Two objects cannot occupy the same point in space at the same moment in time,” begins the trailer.

The film finds automotive mogul Enzo Ferrari at a personal and professional crisis point in his life. “The corner races at you, you have perhaps a crisis of identity,” says Driver’s Ferrari. “Am I a sportsman, or a competitor?” he asks.

Facing bankruptcy and a marriage unraveling, Ferrari’s best hope of saving his legacy and his failing business is to win the treacherous Mille Miglia 1,000-mile race across Italy.

Neon will release the film on December 25. “If you get into one of my cars, you get in to win.”

Here’s the film’s description: It is the summer of 1957. Behind the spectacle of Formula 1, ex-racer Enzo Ferrari (Driver) is in crisis. Bankruptcy threatens the factory he and his wife, Laura (Cruz), built from nothing 10 years earlier. Their volatile marriage has been battered by the loss of their son a year earlier, and Ferrari struggles to acknowledge his son with Lina Lardi (Shailene Woodley). Meanwhile, his drivers’ passion to win pushes them to the edge as they launch into the treacherous 1,000-mile race across Italy, the Mille Miglia.

Patrick Dempsey, Sarah Gordon, Gabriel Leone and Jack O’Connell also star in Mann’s vehicle, which was scripted by Troy Kennedy Martin.

Penélope Cruz In Talks to Star in Netflix’s Upcoming Nancy Meyers Film “Paris Paramount” (Working Title)

Posted on March 7, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Penélope Cruz could be starring in a comedy soon…

The 48-year-old Spanish Oscar-winning actress is in talks to star opposite Scarlett Johansson, Michael Fassbender and Owen Wilson in the big-budget Netflix comedy marking Nancy Meyers’ return to directing, Deadline can confirm.

Sources say actor deals have not yet closed, as budgeting is still being worked through. Netflix had no comment.

The film currently titled Paris Paramount, which tells the story of an above-the-line filmmaking duo who reunite (begrudgingly) on set after falling in and out of love with one another.

Meyers will direct from her own script and also serve as producer on the film, which sources tell us is at a budget exceeding $100M.

The project will mark her first as director since The Intern, a buddy comedy of sorts starring Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway, which was released by Warner Bros in 2015.

Most recently appearing in films including Emanuele Crialese’s L’immensità, Official Competition with Antonio Banderas, and Pedro Almodóvar’s Oscar-nominated Parallel Mothers, Cruz will next be seen starring opposite Adam Driver in Michael Mann’s Ferrari.

An Academy Award-nominated writer, director and producer best known for her work in the rom-com space, Meyers has also previously helmed features including It’s Complicated, The Holiday, Something’s Gotta Give, What Women Want and The Parent Trap.

Ximena Lamadrid Named to Variety’s 2022 “10 Actors to Watch” List

Posted on October 16, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Ximena Lamadrid’s star is on the rise…

The 26-year-old Mexican actress has been named to Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch list, the entertainment industry magazine’s list of thespians who are experiencing a major breakthrough on screen.

Lamadrid is being recognized for her performance in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s acclaimed new film Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths.

Acting has always been in Lamadrid’s blood. But it wasn’t until age 5, when she rejected a role in a school play, that she experienced an epiphany.

“It was that ‘no’ that made me realize it’s a ‘yes’ for me, that for the rest of my life I’d be chasing this amazing dream.” She quickly corrects herself, “Well, what began as a dream, but no longer is a dream. It’s a reality.”

After roles in Sofia Coppola’s On the Rocks and the series Who Killed Sara?, Lamadrid plays a pivotal part in Iñárritu’s Bardo as Camila, the loving daughter of a man caught in the throes of an existential crisis.

She concedes her own history — being born in Mexico, growing up in Dubai and studying her craft in New York City — greatly colored her character’s experience.

“It feels like the universe and Alejandro wrote this for me,” she says,adding: “[Camila] has just graduated from university and is figuring it out. As soon as I graduated, I was figuring it out and came back to Mexico — and it connected. I saw all of the love, warmth and everything I had missed about my country all these years.”

The ability to tackle this role has only furthered her confidence. “As an actor, I have to surrender and trust that it’s going to show up, that everything is going to come out, which it did.” She now has her sights set on the literary world, seeking a publisher for her hybrid poetry-memoir Tulip Season. “I want to make this a very big, beautiful first book.”

Variety’s alumni group of 10 Actors to Watch includes more than 35 Oscar winners and nominees including Mahershala Ali, Adam Driver, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and Lupita Nyong’o.

This year’s honorees will be feted at a brunch on October 16 at the Newport Beach Film Festival.

Aubrey Plaza to Star in Francis Ford Coppola’s Passion Project “Megalopolis”

Posted on August 23, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Aubrey Plaza is having a mega moment…

The 38-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress/comedian will star in Francis Ford Coppola’s passion project Megalopolis.

The film stars Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight and Laurence Fishburne.

Coppola is directing the project from his own script.

The contemporary drama is described as follows: The fate of Rome haunts a modern world unable to solve its own social problems in this epic story of political ambition, genius and conflicted love.

The film’s budget will be just under $100 million, and production begins this fall.

Plaza recently starred in the film Emily the Criminal, which premiered earlier this year Sundance Film Festival.

She is also set to star in the next season of HBO’s hit anthology series The White Lotus.

Gabriel Leone to Star in Michael Mann’s New Film “Ferrari”

Posted on July 15, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Gabriel Leone is revvin’ his engines…

The 28-year-old Brazilian actor has been set by director Michael Mann to play a key role in Ferrari, which is being prepared for an August 1 production start in Italy.

Leone has just signed with CAA and joins a cast that includes Adam Driver in the title role, alongside Penélope Cruz and Shailene Woodley as the women in his life.

The film is set during the summer of 1957, as the former race car driver-turned-magnate Enzo Ferrari staves off bankruptcy as he looks for salvation with a victory at the Mille Miglia, a treacherous 1,000-mile race in which pre-eminent carmakers battle for bragging rights, with their drivers hurtling around twists and turns at 180 mph. In the backdrop, Ferrari battles with his wife and business partner, Laura, as their marriage disintegrates over the mourning of their son and the acknowledgment of another potential heir.

Leone is playing Alfonso De Portago, who was one of Ferrari’s driving stars and the epitome of the daredevil drivers of that era. He was a handsome and wealthy Spanish aristocrat who captured Europe’s imagination and was a favorite to win the Mille Miglia and his results changed the race forever, but not in the way intended. STX Entertainment has worldwide rights on the film.

Leone became a star in Brazil and gained international attention as the lead in Dom, the first original Amazon series produced in Brazil. The drama became the most-watched non-English-language series worldwide for Amazon. Leone recently completed filming its second season.

Mann directs Ferrari from a script by Troy Kennedy Martin and Mann-based on Brock Yates’ book Enzo Ferrari – The Man and the Machine.

Leone separately starred as the title character in Eduardo e Mônica opposite Alice Braga, and Alemão 2, the sequel to the successful 2014 action movie.

Leone began his career in a theater company performing classic repertoire, making his stage debut in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew.

He also starred in numerous musicals including Wicked and Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, for which he was nominated for the principal theater and musical awards in Brazil.

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Penélope Cruz to Star in Michael Mann’s Enzo Ferrari Biopic “Ferrari”

Posted on February 9, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Penélope Cruz is revving her engines for a new role…

The 47-year-old Spanish Oscar-winning actress, who earned an Academy Award nod this week, will star in director Michael Mann’s passion project Ferrari.

Cruz is among a roster of All-Star cast members that includes Adam Driver and Shailene Woodley for the big-budget biopic of racing mogul Enzo Ferrari.

Driver is replacing Hugh Jackman in the title role while Parallel Mothers star Cruz will play Enzo’s wife Laura. Woodley will play mistress Lina Lardi.

Four-time Oscar nominee Mann is gearing up for a May start in Italy.

STX is handling international rights and has now picked up the domestic rights in a big deal with Mann. Amazon is aboard in a handful of international markets. STX International will look to close remaining deals this week with some big international pacts already secured, including Leone in Italy.

The movie, which Mann has been working on for two decades, is set during the summer of 1957. Ex-racecar driver, Ferrari, is in crisis. Bankruptcy stalks the company he and his wife, Laura, built from nothing ten years earlier. Their tempestuous marriage struggles with the mourning for one son and the acknowledgement of another. He decides to counter his losses by rolling the dice on one race – 1,000 miles across Italy, the iconic Mille Miglia.

The project has famously been through multiple iterations, but this is as far along as the casting has been at any stage.

Mann will direct from a script by Troy Kennedy and Mann based on Brock Yates’ book Enzo Ferrari – The Man and the Machine.

“Being able to have these wonderfully talented artists, actors Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz and Shailene Woodley, bring to life these unique characters on location in Modena and the Emilia-Romagna is a vision fulfilled,” says Mann.

“Ferrari is so much more than a story about a man and his machine,” says Adam Fogelson, Chairman of STXfilms Motion Picture. “It is an extraordinary and emotional story that Michael has been developing for years and the entire team at STX is looking forward to the start of production with this dream cast and filmmaker. Adam Driver is one of the most talented and fascinating actors working today, and we could not be more thrilled to pair him with Penélope, whose legendary career builds with every role she takes.”

Cruz, nominated this week for the Best Actress Oscar in Parallel Mothers, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona and was nominated another two times for her roles in Volver and Nine. In addition to Parallel Mothers for Sony, she currently stars in IFC’s Official Competition opposite Antonio Banderas.

Natalie Mendoza to Star as Satine in Broadway’s “Moulin Rouge! The Musical”

Posted on August 5, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Natalie Mendoza is seeing rouge…

The 42-year-old part-Spanish Australian actress/singer has been cast as the lead role of Broadway’s Moulin Rouge! The Musical, filling the vacancy left when the Tony Award-nominated Karen Olivo resigned in April.

With the casting of Mendoza, the full Moulin Rouge! cast is in place for the resumption of performances on Friday, September 24, at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre.

The musical originally opened on July 25, 2019, but performances were suspended in March 2020 when Broadway went dark due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.

Mendoza joins a principal cast that also includes Aaron Tveit, Danny Burstein, Sahr Ngaujah, Tam Mutu, Ricky Rojas and Robyn Hurder.

The casting is a bit of a homecoming for Mendoza, who portrayed a can-can dancer named China Doll in Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 film Moulin Rouge!

“From the moment Natalie was cast as China Doll in Moulin Rouge! the film, we knew we had discovered a major young talent,” Luhrmann said in a statement. “That young talent has now blossomed into the lead in our Broadway production. I could not be more thrilled that Natalie will be lowered in that glorious swing as Broadway’s Sparkling Diamond.”

Said Mendoza, “Having been involved with the film from its early conception, the role of Satine has always been close to my heart. This rare jewel of an opportunity to play a character like her on Broadway feels like a full circle moment. With this stunning group of bohemian artists and this uniquely conscious creative team I couldn’t be in better care.”

Mendoza, raised in Australia, previously worked with the Broadway musical’s director Alex Timbers when she appeared as Imelda Marcos in Here Lies Love at London’s Royal National Theatre.

He starred on the BBC One drama series Hotel Babylon and The Descent horror film franchise.

On the film side, she’ll next be seen in the buzzy Cannes Film Festival film Annette, directed by Leos Carax and starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard.

Mendoza’s other credits include Michael Winterbottom’s futuristic thriller Code 46, Miramax’s The Great Raid and, on television, ABC’s production of South Pacific, ITV’s McDonald & Dodds, CBS’ Blue Bloods and in upcoming episodes of Amazon Prime’s Jack Ryan.

On stage, additional credits include Miss Saigon, Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark and Ghost.

Salma Hayek to Star in MGM & Scott Free Production’s Feature “House of Gucci”

Posted on April 2, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Salma Hayek is House-bound…

The 54-year-old Mexican Oscar-nominated actress has joined the cast of House of Gucci, the feature film from MGM and Scott Free Productions currently in production.

Hayek joins an all-star cast that includes Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Jared Leto and Jack Huston, with Ridley Scott directing.

“So happy to have my good buddy Salma join our wonderful cast,” said producer Giannina Scott. “I’ve been talking with her about this Gucci project for 20 years. Now it’s happening and she is a part of it. Rid and I are thrilled.”

Ridley and Giannina Scott will produce via their Scott Free Productions banner.

The film tells the story of how Patrizia Reggiani (Gaga), the ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci (Driver), plotted to kill her husband, the grandson of renowned fashion designer Guccio Gucci. Hayek will play Pina Auriemma, who was a clairvoyant friend of “Black Widow” Reggiani, who was sentenced to 26 years in prison after her trial in 1998.

Roberto Bentivegna penned the script. House of Gucci will be released in the U.S. via MGM’s distribution joint venture United Artists Releasing on November 24. The film will be distributed internationally via Universal Pictures.

Hayek next can be seen in Lionsgate’s The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard, which will bow on June 16. She also has Marvel’s The Eternals coming out on November 5 and recently was seen in Amazon’s Bliss.

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