Amazon Prime Releases Trailer for Justina Machado’s New Series “The Horror of Dolores Roach”

Justina Machado is bringing the Horror…

Amazon Prime has released the official trailer for its new series The Horror of Dolores Roach, starring the 50-year-old Puerto Rican actress, premiering on July 7.

Justina Machado The trailer for the eight-episode series previews the capabilities of Dolores Roach’s “magic hands.”

The Amazon Original based on the Spotify podcast of the same name and created by Aaron Mark’s one-woman play Empanada Loca, is a contemporary Sweeney Todd-inspired story.

Machado plays Dolores Roach, a woman just released after an unjust 16-year prison sentence, and she returns to a gentrified Washington Heights.

Dolores reunites with an old stoner friend, Luis (Alejandro Hernández), who lets her live and work as a masseuse in the basement under his empanada shop. When the promise of her newfound stability is quickly threatened, “Magic Hands” Dolores is driven to shocking extremes to survive.

Mark created, wrote and directed the original podcast and penned the series’ pilot script.

The new series comes from Mark, who also serves as co-showrunner and executive producer with Dara Resnik, alongside executive producers Daphne Rubin-Vega; Jason Blum, Chris McCumber, Jeremy Gold, and Chris Dickie for Blumhouse Television; Dawn Ostroff, Mimi O’Donnell, and Justin McGoldrick for Spotify; Gloria Calderón Kellett for GloNation Studios; and Roxann Dawson, who directed the pilot.

The Horror of Dolores Roach also stars Kita Updike, K. Todd Freeman, Jean Yoon, Marc Maron, Judy Reyes and Jeffery Self.

Maron is set to play “Gideon Pearlman”, Luis and Dolores’ Long Island-based landlord who is the new owner of the building where they reside and is the home of Empanada Loca. Yoon will play “Joy,” who has owns the laundromat next door, while Reyes will play “Marcie,” who runs the neighborhood weed business and becomes Dolores’ nemesis.

Christian Nodal Helps Launch Amazon Music’s “GEN MEX” Project

Christian Nodal is helping spotlight on the next generation of Regional Mexican music…

Amazon Music has launched “GEN MEX: Your Generation of Música Mexicana” with an assist from the 23-year-old Mexican singer.

Christian NodalThe project includes new music programming and editorial, including Amazon Originals, videos, livestreams, and a new video featuring Nodal where he introduces fans to Amazon’s new home of Música Mexicana.

Additionally, GEN MEX launches with more than 80 playlists and with Yahritza Y Su Esencia as the newly-named ROMPE artist.

“GEN MEX is a celebration of one of the fastest growing music categories within Latin music in the past few years, one that continues to transcend borders across Latin America, the U.S. and beyond,” said Rocio Guerrero, head of global Latin, Amazon Music. “To look ahead, you have to honor the legends that have passed down their traditions. GEN MEX will honor those roots, while helping to redefine its future, connecting fans across borders and generations and elevating the voices of those driving the culture forward.”

Diego Boneta Signs Overall Deal with Prime Video

Diego Boneta is bringing his amigos to Amazon Prime Video

The 31-year-old Mexican actor, singer and producer and his production company Three Amigos have signed an overall deal with Prime Video.

Diego BonetaAs part of the deal, Boneta will produce and star in a full slate of shows in development while also creating movies, series, and reality shows coming to the streaming service beginning in 2023.

All new productions launched as part of this partnership will join Prime Video’s growing slate of Mexican Amazon Originals, along with the thousands of television shows and movies from Hollywood and around the world in the Prime Video catalog.

“We are excited to expand our relationship with Diego Boneta and the entire Three Amigos team,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, in a statement to Deadline. “We can’t wait for our customers to see what’s in store from Diego and Three Amigos as we work to bring compelling new content to Prime Video’s audiences across Mexico and all around the world.”

“As a leading streaming service, Prime Video empowers the incredible creators we work with, and we could not be more excited to begin building new stories with Diego and his team,” said Alonso Aguilar, head of local Amazon Originals, Prime Video Mexico.

Boneta most recently wrapped a successful three-season run on the Telemundo/Netflix bio-series Luis Miguel: The Series, portraying the titular multi-Grammy-winning singer.

He also appeared in Rebelde90210Pretty Little Liars, Underemployed and Scream Queens.

His feature film debut was in 2012’s Rock of Ages from Adam Shankman. Other big-screen credits include The TitanTerminator: Dark FateLove, Weddings, & Other Disasters, and Die in a Gunfight.

Up next, Boneta will star opposite Andy Garcia, Gloria Estefan, Isabela Merced, and Adria Arjona in The Father of the Bride by director Gaz Alazraki. The film premieres on June 16, 2022.

Diego Luna to Receive 2021 Platino Award of Honor

Diego Luna is being celebrated for his platinum career.

This year’s seventh edition of the Ibero-American Platino Awards (Premios Platinos) will honor the 41-year-old Mexican actor, director, producer and festival organizer with the Platino Award of Honor.

Diego Luna

An itinerant award show by design, this year’s Platinos will be held on October 3 in Madrid.

Luna will be the youngest recipient of the career achievement honor, joining previous winners Miguel Rafael Martos Sánchez, often simply referred to as Raphael, one of Spain’s most iconic entertainers of the 20th century; Adriana Barraza, the Oscar nominated Spanish-English-language crossover star of Alejandro Iñárritu’s Babel and Amores Perros; Oscar and three time Primetime Emmy nominee Edward James Olmos (Stand and Deliver); Oscar nominee Antonio Banderas (Pain and Glory); and Primetime Emmy (The Burning Season) and BAFTA (“Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos) nominee Sonia Braga.

A child actor who excelled from an early age, Luna’s first film appearance was in Javier Bourges’ 1991 Mexican Academy Award-nominated short The Last New Year.” He appeared in several telenovelas throughout the ‘90s, joined on screen for the first time by his longtime collaborator and close friend Gael García Bernal in El abuelo y yo in 1992. Alternating between film and television over the next decade, his international breakout came with García Bernal and Spain’s Marbel Verdú in Alfonso Cuarón’s seminal coming-of-age road trip film “Y Tu Mamá También.”

Shortly after, Luna began his Hollywood career appearing alongside Bon Jovi in John Carpenter’s Vampires: Los Muertos and in Salma Hayek’s Oscar-winning biopic Frida.

In the decades since, Luna has continued to work on both Latin American and U.S. productions while also taking turns as a producer, writer and director. He also, again with García Bernal, launched the nomadic documentary film festival Ambulante, as well as their own production label, first Canana in 2005 and now La Corriente del Golfo.

Most recently, he created and hosts the Amazon Original conversation series Pan y Circo and is starring in the Disney+’s Andor, a spinoff series following his Rogue One: A Star Wars Story character Cassian Andor.

He was also recently confirmed as a voice actor for Netflix’s upcoming animated series Maya and the Three, where he will team with frequent collaborator Jorge Gutierrez (The Book of Life).

Last year’s ceremony was, like so many, forced online by the COVID-19 pandemic. But this time around, the Platinos are planning an in-person event to celebrate the best offerings from the Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American screen industries.

At 11 nominations each, the two standout titles are Fernando Trueba’s Colombian drama Memories of My Father and Jayro Bustamante’s Guatemalan thriller La Llorona.

The Platino Awards are promoted by EGEDA (Spain’s Entity for the Rights Management of Audiovisual Producers) and FIPCA (the Ibero-American Federation of Film and Audiovisual Producers) and have the support of the Ibero-American film academies and institutes as well as numerous sponsors in Europe and Latin America.

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

Lisa Vidal is sheltering…

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

Lisa Vidal

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 IslasGrandave 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 BeautyBET 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.

Tenoch Huerta to Star in “Madres,” One of Amazon Prime Video’s Final Four “Welcome to the Blumhouse” Films

Tenoch Huerta is heading to the Blumhouse

The next chapter of Welcome to the Blumhouse is ready to deliver thrills while highlighting some of today’s emerging and inclusive talent in front of and behind the camera, including the 39-year-old Mexican actor.

Tenoch Huerta

Amazon Prime Video has unveiled The ManorBlack as Night, Madres, starring Huerta, and Bingo as the final four films in the eight-film genre anthology. The quartet will debut on the streaming platform in 2021.

Welcome to the Blumhouse kicked off at the beginning of October with its first slate of films including The Lie from Veena SudBlack Box from up-and-coming writer-director Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr., Evil Eye from emerging filmmakers Elan Dassani and Rajeev Dassani, and Nocturne from filmmaker Zu Quirke.

“Coming off the successful launch of the first four films of the program, which has surpassed our expectations, we are excited to reveal the next chapter coming in 2021,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios. “The spine-tingling, edge-of-your-seat thrills continues in this next collection of titles that will surely entertain, surprise and shock our global customers.”

“We’re thrilled to see how audiences around the world have responded to the films in the Welcome to the Blumhouse slate,” said Jeremy Gold, president of Blumhouse Television. “We couldn’t be prouder of the work of these talented filmmakers, cast and crew on all the movies…and we’re excited to introduce the next wave of films and the incredible filmmakers at their helm.”

The second round of thrillers continues the anthology’s original, elevated, genre storytelling that is a Blumhouse signature. Centered around unsettling themes of institutional horrors and personal phobias, the films tap into people’s deepest fears, presenting a distinctive vision and unique perspective.

Similar to the first four films of the program, the slate continues with a thruline, making it the first-ever program of Amazon Original movies on Prime Video that are thematically connected.

Here are details about the final four films and the talent behind them.

  • The Manor is written and directed by Axelle Carolyn, and stars Barbara Hershey, Bruce Davison, Nicholas Alexander, Jill Larsen, Fran Bennett and Katie Amanda Keane. After suffering a stroke, Judith Albright moves into a historic nursing home, where she begins to suspect something supernatural is preying on the residents. In order to escape she’ll need to convince everyone around her that she doesn’t actually belong there after all. Executive produced by Jason Blum, Jeremy Gold, Marci Wiseman, Lisa Bruce, Sandy King and Richard J Bosner.
  • Black as Night is directed by Maritte Lee Go and written by Sherman Payne. The cast stars Asjha Cooper, Fabrizio Guido, Craig Tate, Keith David, Mason Beauchamp, Abbie Gayle and Frankie Smith. A teenage girl with self-esteem issues finds confidence in the most unlikely way, by spending her summer battling vampires that prey on New Orleans’ disenfranchised with the help of her best friend, the boy she’s always pined for, and a peculiar rich girl. Executive produced by Jason Blum, Jeremy Gold, Marci Wiseman, Lisa Bruce, Maggie Malina and Guy Stodel.
  • Madres is directed by first-time feature director Ryan Zaragoza and written by Marcella Ochoa & Mario Miscione. Starring Tenoch Huerta, Ariana Guerra, Evelyn Gonzalez, Kerry Cahill, and Elpidia Carrillo. A Mexican-American couple expecting their first child relocate to a migrant farming community in 1970’s California. When the wife begins to experience strange symptoms and terrifying visions, she tries to determine if it’s related to a legendary curse or something more nefarious. Executive produced by Jason Blum, Jeremy Gold, Marci Wiseman, Lisa Bruce, Sanjay Sharma and Matthew Myers.
  • Bingo is directed by Gigi Saul Guerrero and written by Shane McKenzie & Gigi Saul Guerrero, along with Perry Blackshear. In the Barrio of Oak Springs live a strong and stubborn group of elderly friends who refuse to be gentrified. Their leader, Lupita, keeps them together as a community, a family. But little did they know, their beloved Bingo hall is about to be sold to a much more powerful force than money itself. Executive produced by Jason Blum, Jeremy Gold, Marci Wiseman and Raynor Shima.