Del Toro to Portray Villain in “Star Wars: Episode VIII”

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

May the force be with Benicio Del Toro…

The 48-year-old Puerto Rican actor has been in talks with Lucasfilm and has now been offered a role in Star Wars: Episode VIII as a new villain, according to Deadline.

No details were released regarding the nature of the role, but other name actors are said to have also been considered.

Could this suggest possible spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens? That film has three confirmed villains: Domhnall Gleeson’s General Hux, Gwendolyn Christie’s Captain Phasma, and Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren. That’s a fairly packed slate of heavyweights. The Del Toro casting news makes one wonder if one of that trio doesn’t make it to the end of the movie.

Directed by Looper and Brick helmer Rian Johnson, the still-untitled eighth installment of the new Star Wars trilogy is set for release May 26, 2017.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theaters December 18.

Del Toro’s next film is Sicario for Lionsgate.

del Toro’s Drug-Runner Drama “Sicario” Set for Limited Release in September

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Benicio Del Toro is returning to the big screen this fall…

Lionsgate Films has set a September 18 limited-release date for Sicario, the drug-runner drama starring the 48-year-old Academy Award-winning Puerto Rican actor.

From director Denis Villenueve, the film stars Emily Blunt as an idealistic FBI agent exposed to the brutal world of international drug trafficking by members of a government task force (del Toro and Josh Brolin) who have enlisted her in their plan to take out a Mexican cartel boss.

The film co-stars Jon Bernthal.

Taylor Sheridan wrote Sicario, which will have its wide release one week later, on September 25.

del Toro to Executive Produce/Possibly Star in HBO’s Drama Series “Cortes,” Currently in Development

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Benicio del Toro is ready to conquer a new role…

The 47-year-old Puerto Rican actor/film producer and Oscar-winner will executive produce Cortes, a high-profile drama series in development at HBO.

Cortes will tell the sweeping story of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, who brought down the Aztec empire; Malinche, the Mayan girl who helped him do it; and Montezuma, the Aztec leader he befriended and finally put in chains.

del Toro is also interested in starring as the Spanish conqueror.

The subject matter has the makings of a compelling drama as Cortés’ legacy is a complex one. On one hand, he won Mexico for Spain and extended the Spanish Empire. But from the indigenous’ point of view, he was a mass murderer who spearheaded the destruction of one of the greatest civilizations of that time.

Cortes is being written/executive produced by Mississippi Burning scribe Chris Gerolmo, and directed/executive produced by Martin Scorsese.

del Toro Accepts Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival

Posted on September 27, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Benicio del Toro is a film don(ostia)…

The 48-year-old Puerto Rican actor accepted the Donostia Award for lifetime achievement at the San Sebastian International Film Festival on Friday.

In his acceptance speech, del Toro paid homage to his native Puerto Rico.

“I want to dedicate this award to the piece of land where I come from, where I was born, where I learned to throw rocks and had them first thrown at me,” del Toro said at the award ceremony. “Where I learned to take risks and where I learned not to do things just to do them.”

Cuban actor-director Jorge Perugorria introduced the Oscar-winning actor as a “rebel of the profession [of acting],” just before del Toro thanked the festival.

Del Toro received the award before the screening of his latest project, Andrea DiStefano‘s Escobar: Paradise Lost in the festival’s Pearls Selection.

Earlier in the day, he spoke to journalists about how he respected the actors and actresses who came before him, how Steven Soderbergh‘s Che was his most “complicated” role and how not to be thin-skinned in Hollywood.

“An actor has to have a short memory. There’s a lot of rejection, and you can’t wallow in it. You have to have a short memory,” del Toro said.

But del Toro proved to have a long memory when he told an anecdote about seeing a picture of a haggard fisherman and upon asking what had happened to him was told, “the effort.”

“I look at this prize and I answer the same to myself — the effort,” he said.

del Toro to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at San Sebastian International Film Festival

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Benicio del Toro is about to add another award to his collection…

The 48-year-old Puerto Rican actor and film producer and Oscar-winner will receive the Donostia Award for Lifetime Achievement at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

del Toro’s latest film Escobar: Paradise Lostwill close the Pearls Selection at the festival, which runs September 19-27.

Escobar, written by Andrea di Stefano, tells the story of young surfer Nick who thinks he has landed in paradise when he falls in love with a Colombian girl on a visit to see his brother who is living in the South American country only to have it change when he meets her uncle, Pablo Escobar.

del Toro has confirmed that he’ll come to San Sebastian to present the film and receive the Donostia at the closing ceremony. Di Stefano, Josh Hutcherson and Carlos Bardem will also be present for the film’s Spanish premiere.

del Toro is a favorite at San Sebastian where he has accompanied films from his career.

del Toro won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic as well as an Oscar nomination for his work in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s 21 Grams.

del Toro re-teamed with Soderbergh to star in the biography of Che Guevera Che. The performance won him the Best Actor award at the Palme D’Or Closing Ceremony at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, and again the following year at the Goya Awards in Madrid, Spain.

He starred opposite Emily Blunt and Anthony Hopkins in Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman and as Lado in Oliver Stone’s Savages.

del Toro was starred as Jimmy, the lead in Jimmy P. The film was screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. He was last seen in Guardians of the Galaxy a sci-fi action film for Walt Disney Pictures/Marvel Enterprises, which was released in the beginning of August 2014.

Next year he’ll play Mambru in Fernando Leon’s A Perfect Day and Sauncho Smilax in Inherent Vice, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

The actor is currently in production on Denis Villeneuve’s Sicaro.

Hernandez to Star Opposite Benicio del Toro in Border Drama “Sicario”

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Maximiliano Hernandez is making a run for the border.

The 41-year-old Latino actor has been cast in director Denis Villeneuve’s border film Sicario.

Starring Benicio del Toro, Emily Blunt and Josh Brolin, the drama centers on a female FBI agent assigned to work with two Delta Force operators to take down a Mexican cartel boss.

Hernandez, who has starred as Jasper Sitwell in the blockbuster films Thor, Avengers, and Captain America: Winter Soldier on television in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., will play Silvio, a hard-drinking drug smuggling cop in Mexico.

He currently stars on the new TNT drama series The Last Ship and recently appeared in Amazon’s pilot Hand of God, directed by Marc Forster.

del Toro Joins U.S. Presidential Campaign Aimed at Halting Sexual Assault on College Campuses

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Benicio del Toro is shining a spotlight on a big problem on college campuses…

The 47-year-old Puerto Rican actor has joined a U.S. presidential campaign aimed at halting sexual assault on college campuses.

In a PSA video that also features Barack Obama, vice president Joe Biden and stars such as comic and talk show host Seth Meyers, Daniel Craig and Steve Carell, del Toro speaks out in support of the “1 is 2 Many” initiative.

“We have a big problem. And we need your help,” declares the Oscar-winning actor in the 60-second clip. “If she doesn’t consent, or she can’t consent, it’s rape, it’s assault,” he adds later.

“It’s happening to our sisters and our daughters, our wives and our friends,” the actors say in the White House-produced video. “It’s called sexual assault, and it has to stop.”

The video campaign is part of the White House task force to protect students from sexual assault and will air in movie theaters across the country, as well as on US military bases and ships across the world.

Said Craig in a statement to The Wrap: “I am honoured to be part of such an important and crucial project. The message is clear and simple: everyone has a responsibility. There are no exceptions. There are no excuses. Please watch it and pass it on.”

del Toro In Final Talks to Star Opposite Emily Blunt in the Crime Thriller “Sicario”

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Benicio del Toro may soon star in a Sic role…

The 47-year-old Puerto Rican actor, who earned an Academy Award for his performance in Traffic, is in final talks to star in the crime thriller Sicario.

del Toro would star opposite Emily Blunt in the film which centers on the hunt for a dangerous drug kingpin.

Blunt will portray a female cop from Tucson, Arizona, who travels across the border to Mexico with mercenaries to catch a notorious drug lord.

Sicario will be helmed by Prisoners director Denis Villeneuve, based on a screenplay from Sons of Anarchy actor Taylor Sheridan.

del Toro will next star as Taneleer Tivan or The Collector in James Gunn‘s Guardians of the Galaxy, which will hit U.S. theaters on August 1.

He’s also among the cast of Paul Thomas Anderson‘s all-star crime comedy drama Inherent Vice along with Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon and Maya Rudolph, among others.

Michael to Display His Work in a Special Exhibit at the Polaroid Museum

Posted on March 23, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Instagram may be all the rage… But Lucas Michael is making sure a pop culture classic isn’t forgotten…

The Argentine photographer is helping Florida-based retailer Polaroid Fotobar celebrate the opening of its flagship store inside Las Vegas’ The LINQ this spring with four new exhibits at the Polaroid Museum, focused on Hollywood’s most celebrated stars.

The exhibits will feature shots by Michael, as well as fellow photographers Maurizio Galimberti, Marc Serota and Maripol.

Michael’s photos from last year’s Golden Globes will be on display, featuring candid shots of Jennifer Lawrence, Adele, Bryan Cranston, Ben Affleck, Daniel Day-Lewis and the cast of Girls.

Galimberti, who has worked with Polaroid cameras since 1983, will showcase his portraits of Kate Winslet, Benicio Del Toro and Javier Bardem.

Serota utilized a multi-step image-transfer process to create his large collection of Polaroid portrait prints (“pictorial biographies”), which include shots of Paul McCartney, Roger Daltrey, Kenny Rogers and Gloria Estefan.

Maripol’s 75-shot exhibit will include images of a young Madonna dancing the night away, Debbie Harry in a red sailor suit, and Andy Warhol walking the streets of New York.

The works of the four artists will also join other exhibits, including Warhol’s “Capturing Celebrity,” Tim Mantoani’s “Behind Photographs,” and the world-famous 20×24 Polaroid camera at the Polaroid Museum. The museum will also feature a history on Polaroid founder Edwin Land, as well as an extensive collection of rare artifacts, art and advertising from the Polaroid Historical Collection at MIT.

The exhibits will debut at the Polaroid Museum on April 17, with Polaroid Fotobar’s flagship store opening March 31.

Marvel Releases First-Look Trailer of Saldaña’s “Guardians of the Galaxy”

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

More details on Zoë Saldaña’s Marvel-ous role have surfaced…

Following the release of a first photo for Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel has released a first-look trailer of the superhero film, which stars the 35-year-old half-Dominican/half-Puerto Rican American actress.

Saldaña stars as the red-haired, green-skinned character Gamora in the film.

In addition to Saldaña , the film also stars Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Benicio Del Toro and Vin Diesel in the cosmic tale of Peter Quill (Pratt), who becomes the target of bounty hunters after stealing a mysterious orb and links up with a ragtag band of misfits with the fate of the galaxy at stake.

James Gunn directs the film, which will hit theaters on August 1.

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