Noomi Rapace Starring in Psychological Horror Thriller “Palette”

Posted on February 7, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Noomi Rapace is expanding her artistic palette…

The 44-year-old half-Spanish-Swedish actress will star opposite Hunter Schafer in the upcoming psychological horror thriller Palette.

The production marks the feature directorial debut of writer-director Zach Strauss, who also wrote its 2023 Black List screenplay, with other recent screenwriting credits including Spike Lee’s upcoming film Da Understudy and episodes of Frankie Shaw’s Showtime series SMILF.

In Palette, Schafer stars as Dolly, a woman suffering from extreme synesthesia, a rare condition through which she is able to hear colors.

She is recruited into a secretive, cult-like industry of color design, where she discovers the dark reality of what it takes to make the world’s greatest hues.

Rapace will play the company’s enigmatic executive Latrice and Shaw has joined the cast as Sidney, Hunter’s cutthroat rival.

“I feel beyond lucky to be making this dark and twisted movie with a truly exceptional cast and with such incredible partners in Anton, I know we’re going to create something really special,” said Strauss.

Producer John Zois praised Strauss’s “compelling and completely distinctive” screenplay.

“We are putting together a team that will bring the stunning visuals of the story to the screen. Hunter and Noomi are truly perfect for our two leads and I cannot wait to see them bring these rich and unique characters to life. We could not be more excited about this film.”

Sebastien Raybaud and Zois will produce for Anton, alongside Shaw & Strauss for Uncle Pete Productions, and Ryan Christians. Executive producers are Schafer, Brandt Wrightsman for Anton and Ross Dinerstein for Campfire Studios.

Rapace’s previous credits include the Swedish film adaptations of the Millennium series: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest. Her other credits include Prometheus, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Child 44.

Jenna Ortega’s “Miller’s Girl” to World Premiere at the Palm Springs Film Festival

Posted on December 13, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Jenna Ortega’s latest project will have its debut in the California desert…

Jade Halley Bartlett‘s Miller’s Girl, starring the 21-year-old Mexican American actress and Wednesday star and Martin Freeman, will make its world premiere at the 2024 Palm Springs Film Festival before it opens in theaters next month.

Lionsgate and Point Grey Pictures are behind the movie, which marks the feature writing and directing debut for Bartlett, who wrote the original play in 2011 and adapted it into a screenplay that landed on the 2016 Black List.

Miller’s Girl will premiere at the festival on January 11 and open in cinemas beginning Friday, January 26.

Ortega, Freeman and Bartlett are set to attend the Palm Springs screening at the festival, which runs January 4-15. They will be a part of the fest’s Talking Pictures program that features post-screening Q&As with cast and creatives.

The film centers on the unraveling of a complex connection between lonely intellectuals: a failed writer named Jonathan Miller (Freeman) and his remarkable student Cairo Sweet (Ortega). When a creative writing assignment prompts uncomfortable realities, both realize they’ve blurred lines beyond the academic. The pic is about the imminent, inexorable attraction between characters who become both hero and villain in each other’s stories.

Bashir Salahuddin, Gideon Adlon and Dagmara Domińczyk also star.

Ortega’s hit Netflix series Wednesday will begin shooting in late April in Ireland, after Season 1 was shot in Romania. The first season ranks as Netflix’s most popular series of all time with 252.1 million views to date.

On the film front, Ortega recently confirmed that the Wednesday schedule means she won’t be able to return for the next installment of Scream, after she helped Scream VI this year to the horror franchise’s best opening grosses ever at $44.4 million in the U.S.

Ortega is next up opposite Ben Foster, Toby Wallace and Tommy Lee Jones in Brian Helgeland’s crime thriller Finestkind, which has its world premiere Tuesday.

She also has Beetlejuice 2 in the works for a September 2024 launch.

Daniel Zovatto to Star Opposite Anna Kendrick in True Crime Thriller “The Dating Game”

Posted on October 29, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Daniel Zovatto is joining the dating pool…

The 31-year-old Costa Rican American film and television actor will co-star opposite Anna Kendrick in the true crime thriller The Dating Game, which Kendrick will also directing.

Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios is behind the film with Kendrick also producing.

Production is currently under way in Vancouver.

The script is from a Black List script by Ian MacAllister McDonald and is based on the stranger-than-fiction true story of Cheryl Bradshaw, who was a bachelorette on the hit 70s TV matchmaking show The Dating Game and chose handsome and funny bachelor number one, Rodney Alcala. But behind Alcala’s charming façade was a deadly secret: he was a psychopathic serial killer.

Best known for his breakout role in It Follows, Zovatto is coming off a starring role in the Emmy-nominated HBO limited series Station 11 opposite Himesh Patel and Mackenzie Davis.

He recently wrapped production on The Pope’s Exorcist opposite Russell Crowe.

Jenna Ortega to Star in Lionsgate’s “Miller’s Girl”

Posted on September 21, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Jenna Ortega is readying for a new project…

The 19-year-old Puerto Rican and Mexicam American actress and new Scream queen has boarded Lionsgate and Point Grey’s Miller’s Girl opposite Martin Freeman.

The film reps the directorial debut from writer-director Jade Halley Bartlett, whose screenplay for the project ranked on the 2016 Black List.

In Miller’s Girl, a creative writing assignment yields complex results between a teacher and his talented student. Point Grey has been attached to the project ever since it arrived on the Black List.

Mary-Margaret Kunze is producing with Point Grey.

Erin Westerman, President of Production for the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, tells Deadline, “While we are excited for the movie to speak for itself, the level of talent assembled for this special film is a testament to Jade, whose screenplay lures you in with her dazzling voice. And then eats you alive.”

The film is currently shooting in Georgia. Lionsgate is handling global sales.

Ortega will next star in the title role of the Tim Burton Netflix series Wednesday, centering on the Addams Family character.

In January she starred in the $140M-global grossing Scream and is set to reprise her role in the hit franchise’s sixth installment.

She recently wrapped production on the crime thriller Finest Kind directed by Oscar winner Brian Helgeland, was last seen starring in A24’s X and HBO’s The Fallout.

Joe Penna to Direct Endeavor Content’s Sci-Fi Thriller “Trespasser”

Posted on August 25, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Joe Penna isn’t (tres)passing on a great opportunity…

The 35-year-old Brazilian musician and filmmaker will direct Endeavor Content’s sci-fi thriller Trespasser.

The film is based on a Black List screenplay by Gabe Hobson and adapted from Justin M. Ryan’s 2017 Alterna Comics-published graphic novel.

The grounded genre story is set in the Alaskan wilderness, where a father and daughter living in isolation encounter a mysterious otherworldly creature and are thrust into a journey of peril, survival and redemption.

Trespasser was originally published in 2016 as a four-issue digital series available for download through Amazon’s Comixology portal. The following year, Ryan launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund a trade paperback version that collected all four of the original digital issues.

Jason Fuchs, Brad Fuller and Alixandra Fuchs will produce the project, with Alex Ginno serving as executive producer.

Penna broke onto the scene with the survival film Arctic starring Mads Mikkelsen, a 2018 Cannes official selection. He followed that up with Stowaway, which stars Anna Kendrick and Toni Collette, for Netflix.

Debra Moore Muñoz Signs Overall Content Deal with FX Productions

Posted on October 7, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Debra Moore Muñoz has a new content deal…

The Mexican-American writer and producer, a co-executive producer and writer on FX’s Mayans M.C., has signed an overall deal with the show’s producer, FX Productions, to develop new content for FX through her company Apogee Films, Inc.

Muñoz is a first generation American who was born and raised in Los Angeles. She attended Columbia University in New York City, then returned to LA to begin her career in film development.

She worked on projects like Exodus: Gods and Kings, The Heat and St. Vincent before transitioning into television, serving first as a general assistant, then as a writers’ assistant on Westworld from 2016 to 2018.

In 2019, she was included on the 2019 Black List for her script Refuge, which follows a brother and sister through Central America as they seek safety in the United States.

In 2021, Muñoz joined the writing staff of Mayans M.C., which stars JD Pardo as Ezekiel “EZ” Reyes, a new member of the Mayans M.C. charter on the border of California and Mexico. EZ and his brother Angel (Clayton Cardenas) uncover the truth behind their mother’s murder while their father Felipe (Edward James Olmos) struggles to reconcile the choices he and his sons have made. Muñoz was recently promoted to co-executive producer.

“Debra has emerged as one of the brightest writers and producers in the industry and FX was fortunate to have her on the writing staff of ‘Mayans M.C’. since its inception,” said Nick Grad, FX’s president of original programming. “We look forward to collaborating with her for new projects that draw on her enormous talents.”

Ariana DeBose to Star in the Space Thriller “ISS”

Posted on February 2, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Ariana DeBose has landed an out of this world role…

The 30-year-old half-Afro-Puerto Rican actress/singer has been cast in ISS, the space thriller from LD Entertainment and director Gabriela Cowperthwaite.

DeBose joins previously announced stars Chris Messina and Pilou Asbaek, as well as John Gallagher Jr., Costa Ronin, and Masha Mashkova.

Nick Shafir wrote the screenplay, which was featured in the recent 2020 Black List. The plot follows six astronauts living aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and the actions they take after receiving distressing information from Earth that threatens their missions and their lives.

DeBose will play Kira Foster, a promising biological engineer and the newest arrival of six astronauts aboard the ISS.

Production is set to begin this month in Wilmington, NC.,

DeBose was most recently seen in Ryan Murphy’s all-star Netflix musical, The Prom,

She also earned a Tony Award nomination in 2018 for her portrayal of Donna Summer in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical and was part of the Off Broadway cast of Hamilton.

Up next, she can be seen in the role of Anita for Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story remake.

Noomi Rapace to Star in the Black List Thriller “O2”

Posted on February 16, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Noomi Rapace is ready to thrill…

The 40-year-old half-Spanish actressis set to star in the contained Black List thriller O2, which will be directed by Franck Khalfoun.

Crawl and The Hills Have Eyes reboot writer-director Alexandre Ajais producing and supervising artistic direction.

Written by Christie LeBlanc, the script was a buzzed-about prospect on the 2016 Black List.

The film centers on a woman who wakes up in a cryogenic medical pod, alone, with no memory, and no way out. All she knows is that she has 90 minutes of oxygen left and must figure out how to save herself, while discovering who she really is, who put her there, and most importantly – why?

Aja says about the film, which is due to enter production in the summer, “One of the most compelling scripts I’ve read in years – a pure survival experience with a great mystery at its core. Even without the oxygen running out, the suspense on the page left me breathless.”

Rapace, who recently was cast in the thriller The Thicket, previously starred in the Swedish film adaptations of the Millennium series: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest. Her other credits include Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Prometheus and Child 44.

Saldaña to Star in the Action Thriller “Hummingbird”

Posted on February 4, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Zoë Saldaña’s career is humming along…

The 38-year-old half-Dominican/half-Puerto Rican American actress will star in Hummingbird, the action thriller to be directed by Marcus Kryler and Fredrik Akerström from a Black List script by John McClain.

The story centers on a female black-ops assassin (Saldaña) whose latest mark forces her to confront her true identity.

Kryler and Akerström teamed to helm the cinematic content for Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 1 video game, and their trailer has 58 million views on YouTube.

Fundamental Films picked up rights to Hummingbird in October. The company will finance and produce with Broken Road Productions.

Saldaña previously starred in the action thriller Colombiana, which earned her an Alma Award nomination. She most recently starred in Live By Night, and will next appear in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

Martinez Joins Live Reading of Black List Script “El Fuego Caliente”

Posted on November 19, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Natalie Martinez’s career is heating up…

The 31-year-old Cuban American actress has joined the cast of the upcoming live reading of the 2011 Black list script El Fuego Caliente.

Melanie Lynskey and Don Cheadle have also come on board, joining previously announced cast members Roselyn Sanchez, Jaime Camil, Judy Reyes, Stephanie Beatriz, Diego Boneta, Ben Schwartz, and narrator Anthony Mendez.

Written by Schwartz, who is also directing the live read, the story is a remake of Soapdish that follows telenovela icon Penelope, who desperately dreams of escaping to Hollywood stardom. After a jealous costar and conniving producer resurrect her character’s previously-killed off ex-lover, Penelope’s life becomes crazier than the show on which she stars.

The live read of El Fuego Caliente happens at the Montalban Theater in Hollywood, Saturday, November 21, 2015 at 8:00 PM.

Tickets are now available.

Hispanically Yours

Celebrating the Latino Influence

Tag Archives: Black List