The 38-year-old Mexican–American actor has joined the ensemble cast of Kevin Costner’s epic Western film saga Horizonat Warner Bros/New Line.
Edda is among a list of new cast additions that includes Jena Malone,Tatanka Means and Michael Rooker.
The foursome join an expanding roster that includes Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jamie Campbell Bower, Luke Wilson and Thomas Haden Church.
Costner will produce through his Territory Pictures, and direct and star in the period film, which he co-wrote with Jon Baird.
Horizon chronicles a multi-faceted 15-year span of pre- and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American West. Experienced through the eyes of many, the epic journey is fraught with peril and intrigue from the constant onslaught of natural elements, to the interactions with the indigenous peoples who lived on the land, and the determination and at many times ruthlessness of those who sought to settle it.
Costner returns to directing for the first time since his 2003 box office hit Open Range. With Horizon, Costner revisits Civil War-era America, the setting for his 1990 blockbuster and multi-Oscar winner Dances with Wolves, which he also directed, produced and starred in. That film won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Costner.
Edda was last seen on the FX series Snowfalland is returning to Season 6 as a regular. He stars as El Chapo in the Netflix series Narcos: Mexicoand starred opposite Tom Cruise in American Madeand in Universal/Blumhouse’s The Forever Purge.
The 49-year-old Puerto Rican actress will star opposite Will Sasso in The Throwback, an indie comedy marking the feature directorial debut of Mario Garcia.
The project will be heading into production in Tampa next month.
The film follows a married couple (Machado and Sasso) in full-blown midlife crisis who are thrown into further turmoil when the wife (Machado), an underappreciated and stressed ‘supermom,’ suffers a post-traumatic breakdown during the holiday season, causing her to regress to her 19-year-old college party-girl self.
Garcia wrote the script and will produce via his company Garcia Interactive, alongside Michael A. Alfieri of Miantri Films and Doug Fox. Machado and Sasso’s longtime manager, Danielle Del, will executive produce alongside Machado and Sterling Macer Jr.
Machado recently starred as Penelope on Sony Picture Television’s revival of One Day at a Time. She will next be seen in the Blumhouse-produced Amazon series, The Horror of Dolores Roach.
The actress has also been seen on series like Queen of the South, Jane the Virginand Six Feet Under, among many others.
Her additional film credits include All Together Now, The Purge: Anarchy, The Calland The Accidental Husband.
The Mexican producer, writer and film director is joining forces with Barry Jenkins to develop a fourth iteration of HBO’sTrue Detective.
The WarnerMedia-owned cable network is developing True Detective: Night Country(working title), a new take on the crime drama.
The series, created and written by Nic Pizzolatto, ran for three seasons between 2014 and 2019.
López will write, executive-produce and direct the pilot with Jenkins executive-producing via his collective Pastel alongside Adele Romanski and Mark Ceryak.
Anonymous Content, which produced the first three installments will also executive produce with other True Detective EPs, so presumably Pizzolatto will be among those listed.
López is the writer and director of Mexican film Tigers Are Not Afraid (Vuelven), which won a slew of awards over the last few years and received praise from the likes of Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and Guillermo del Toro.
The latter is also working with Lopez on a haunted western about the werewolf mythology. She is also working with Noah Hawley on Searchlight’s The Book of Soulsand with Blumhouse on Our Lady of Tears.
The third season of True Detective aired on HBO in 2019 and starred Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff, set in the Ozarks. It was the follow up to 2015’s Colin Farrell, Taylor Kitsch, Rachel McAdams and Vince Vaughn-fronted series and the first season, which starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.
Gonzales stars as the morally compromised Hector, whose pursuit of ‘get rich or die trying’ dreams landed his partner Arturo Duran in prison for thirteen years. Since then, he’s further cemented his influence over the Duran family: He has a son with Lola (Gonzalez) and is the de facto father figure for Angela (Williams). Despite his overtures to legitimize himself, he’s a lifelong hustler who’s baiting the attention of the FBI.
Willians portrays the character of Angela, a Gen-Z Afro Latina, who is described as fiercely independent, confident, and always adapting. The face of our modern Los Angeles. The Duran family have hung their hopes on Angela as their luminary, but she’s in deep debt to her nefarious uncle, who’s co-signed her loans to USC. Her father, Arturo (Garcia) returns to her life after a long absence, presenting a challenging new vision of her future.
Written by Javier Rodriguez, the one-hour drama from STXtelevision and Amazon Studios revolves around a Chicano family in the deep suburbs of Los Angeles as they come to terms with the falsehoods of the American dream, and their ability to defy expectations. The pilot will be directed by Ricardo de Montreuil, who helmed Eva Longoria and Demián Bichir in the Blumhouse/Imagine East L.A.-set drama, Lowriders.
Rodriguez executive produces with de Montreuil, photographer/director Estevan Oriol, LA-based artist Mister Cartoon, and Michael Connolly who put the Latinx package together under his STXtelevision-based Mad Hatter Entertainment banner.
Gonzales can currently be seen as the lead in Netflix/Endeavor Content’s Blue Miracleopposite Dennis Quaid. He can next be seen on Fox Searchlight’s biopic Flamin’ Hotas Hector Morales and currently is a recurring guest star on FX’s MayansM.C.
Other credits include AMC’s Lodge 49, AMC’s The Walking Dead, and David E. Kelley’s Mr. Mercedes.
Williams played a supporting lead in a 2021 Lifetime Movie opposite Denise Richards. Although a relative newcomer to the small screen, she’s worked with Phylicia Rashad, Stephen McKinleyHenderson, and Ruben Santiago Hudson at the Billie Holliday Theatre.
Paulina Villegas’ written words will be coming to life soon…
Exile Content has partnered with producer Lawrence Bender to acquire the rights to the Latina reporter and Azam Ahmed’s New York Timesarticle, “He Was One of Mexico’s Deadliest Assassins. Then He Turned on His Cartel.”
Exile and Bender are currently developing the story into a film or series with Ahmed and Caitlin Roper as producers.
Ahmed and Villegas’ article was published in December 2019. It tells the story of a man who became one of the deadliest assassins in Mexico, who eventually taken into custody via a makeshift witness protection program. He eventually fell back into the deadly trade. “This will never end, no matter what I do,” he said in the story. “But I just won’t be a part of it anymore.”
This isn’t the first story from Ahmed to be acquired for development.
The late Miriam Rodriguez’s story is headed to the big screen…
Blumhouse has won the screen rights to a December 13 New York Times story which chronicled the late Mexican human rights activist and desperate mother’s revenge spree in Mexico, when she avenged her daughter’s murder by taking on the drug cartels and tracking down the perpetrators by herself.
She saw 10 of them apprehended by police before she was shot and killed in front of her home on Mother’s Day, 2017.
NYT will produce with Blumhouse, and Caitlin Roper, NYT’s executive producer for scripted projects, is producing alongside the article’s writer, Azam Ahmed, and Jason Blum.
Anonymous Content represented the article in the sale process.
Ahmed is NYT bureau chief for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. His article tells the story of the 56-year-old Rodriguez, whose whole world came crashing down on her when she lost her daughter, despite paying multiple ransom demands after the 20-year-old was kidnapped in 2014.
Getting no help from law enforcement, Rodriguez took things into her own hands. Using disguises and different identities, she went after the alleged kidnappers. She even used a gun to hold the culprits until she could get them handcuffed and arrested. Her story is juxtaposed with the plight of another family desperate for a happier outcome after their son is kidnapped.
Ahmed reported a series on the homicide crisis in Latin America, the deadliest region in the world, outlining the root causes of the violence. Each piece delved into a specific issue in a specific country, using intimate portraits of those living on the front lines of the crisis: the inescapable cycles of violence in Honduras, the scourge of femicide in Guatemala, the pervasiveness of illegally smuggled U.S. guns in Jamaica, the making of a cartel assassin in Mexico and the violence of the state in Brazil.
Last month, Azam won the Michael Kelly Award for his courageous and moving work for this series.
Azam’s reporting for this series has also been recognized this year with a Polk award, an Overseas Press Club award and the James Foley Medill Medal, which recognizes courage in pursuit of a story. Ahmed’s investigative work on corruption and the illegal use of spyware, Pegasus, helped launch federal investigations in México and led to major arrests and reform and the project was submitted by The Times for a Pulitzer Prize. Azam was previously the NYT bureau chief in Afghanistan, where he worked for nearly three years covering the war.
The 19-year-old Latina transgender actress will be taking part in Blumhouse’s first-ever BlumFest, a virtual event featuring panels of talent from the studio’s upcoming movies, both big screen and PVOD, and more.
The virtual event will take place Thursday, October 29 at 10:00 am PT on Blumhouse’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.
“This year has sidelined a lot for all of us, but Halloween is a treasured season at Blumhouse, so we conceived BlumFest to celebrate with our fans via a virtual event that will feature exclusive interviews and never-before-seen footage on an upcoming release or two,” said Jason Blum, Blumhouse’s CEO and founder.
Panels featured include:
Welcome to the Blumhouse – Join Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios and Blum for a lively convo about the collaboration between Amazon and Blumhouse on the recently launched movies The Lie, Nocturne, Evil Eye andBlack Box. Mamoudou Athie from the film Black Box will join the duo along with surprise guests. The four films are currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
The Craft: Legacy – Writer-director Zoe Lister Jones and the film’s stars Cailee Spaeny, Gideon Adlon, Lovie Simone and Luna will chat about the cult hit reboot. The movie will debut Wednesday on PVOD and electronic sell-through domestic, with a big-screen release abroad.
Freaky – Writer-director Chris Landon, stars Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton, and Blum will chat about the body-swap horror comedy which hits theaters November 13 and select offshore markets via Universal.
Halloween Kills – Filmmaker David Gordon Green and the horror franchise’s scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis, producer Malek Akkad from Trancas Films and Miramax producer Bill Block and Blum will converse about the October 2021 release.
The Good Lord Bird – Ethan Hawke, EP, writer and star of the Showtime series and Blum, who’ve worked together over several projects, will discuss their most recent collaboration.
The 46-year-old Peruvian filmmaker has signed on to direct and co-write the social thriller Danielwith first-time feature writer Owen Renfroe.
The story follows, Daniel, an unlicensed Latinx doctor who works for a dying billionaire on his private, remote estate. When he suddenly uncovers a sinister secret about his boss’s foster daughter, he must fight for the life he worked so hard to build. The film is the first social thriller to tackle head-on the plight of Latinx professionals and the struggles they endure in dealing with systemic discrimination.
“Daniel explores the very real struggles that minorities and disenfranchised groups have to endure in America, at a historic time when these pressures are finally getting broadly exposed,” said de Montreuil.
Montreuil broke onto the scene when he was tapped by Blumhouse to direct the coming-of-age drama Lowriders in 2016. The film stars Demian Bichir, Eva Longoria and Gabriel Chavarria and earned strong reviews with Montreuil landing a number of jobs following its release.
He’s currently attached to direct several episodes of the new George Lopez and STXtv series Once Upon A Time In Aztlan.
The project includes the participation of famed photographer Estevan Oriol and iconic Los Angeles-based artist Mister Cartoon aka Mark Machado.
Michael Connolly, under his Mad Hatter Entertainment banner, brought the elements together.
Lopez is in final talks to star and executive produce the project through his Travieso Productions, with Javier Rodriguez writing the pilot. Oriol and Cartoon will executive-produce.
“I’m thrilled to be teaming up with Cartoon, Estevan, Jada and Michael for this series and developing a show with STXtv,” Lopez said. “Cartoon and Estevan are the DaVincis of our community; they have been the street chroniclers of our uniquely Chicano story … our American story. I’m looking forward to working with them and the rest of the team to expand their canvas to capture the diverse stories and people that make our culture and community so amazing, colorful and vibrant.”
This authentic L.A.-based series examines a family coming to terms with the falsehoods of the American Dream and their ability to defy expectations.
“I want to create a vision of Los Angeles inspired by my tattoos and murals that enriches and showcases the culture, opening it up to new audiences,” Cartoon said. “Putting together the dream team of Latino street culture and a collection of creative minds headed up by George Lopez, who is born and raised in L.A. and is an icon of our community. George’s experience and sense of humor acts as a foundation for this team.”
The pilot will be directed by Ricardo de Montreuil, who helmed Eva Longoria and Demián Bichir in the Blumhouse/Imagine East L.A.-set drama, Lowriders.During that production, he worked closely with Oriol and Cartoon, who were also involved in the production.
Oriol and Cartoon’s longtime collaborators Mark Suroff and Marco Valadez, who produced LA Originals, also will serve as executive producers with Connolly.
“I’m looking forward to developing this with Cartoon, George, Jada and Michael,” said Oriol. “STXtv truly gets what it takes to develop a real show that can only be made in LA. This is the dream team. Period. It doesn’t get more authentic than this and I’m proud and privileged to be invited on this ride.”
He previously starred in Lopez for TV Land and Saint George for FX. And he had a talk show that ran from 2009-11. While his hit comedy George Lopez, whichended in 2007, ran on ABC, STXtv will zero in on buyers in the cable and streaming markets.
Cartoon is L.A.’s legendary tattoo artist, designer and cultural icon whose stylish and influential global work has been featured on countless celebrities including Kobe Bryant, Eminem, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Beyoncé, Lewis Hamilton, Snoop Dogg and many others. Cartoon also designed the logos for Cypress Hill and Eminem’s Shady Records, and his résumé includes cutting-edge designs for Nike, the LA Clippers and T-Mobile and others.
Oriol is an internationally celebrated photographer, director and urban lifestyle entrepreneur. Beginning as a tour manager for Cypress Hill and House of Pain, he developed a passion for photography as he documented life on the road to become hip-hop’s best-known chronicler; his work has been showcased in bestselling books, select galleries, and institutions, including the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives,Mesa Contemporary Art Center, Petersen Automotive Museum, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles’ and New York’s Art in the Streets exhibit. He has photographed Eminem, Kim Kardashian, Cypress Hill, Dennis Hopper, Blink-182, Forest Whitaker, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent, and Danny Trejo, among many others. He most recently executive produced the film Lowridersand directed the hit Netflix documentary L.A. Originals.
L.A. Originalswas critically acclaimed and extremely successful, introducing new fans to the world to Oriol and Cartoon.
The 28-year-old half-Mexican American actor and formerTeen Wolf star will star opposite Lelia Symington in Brut Force, the first feature from writer-director Eve Symington.
Scheduld to go before cameras this fall in California, the film follows Sloane (Symington), a reporter who returns to her rural California hometown to investigate harassment of local vineyard workers, uncorking a tangled web of crime, corruption and murder behind wine country’s shiny façade.
Posey, who recently appeared in the Blumhouse thriller Truth or Dare, will play her love interest and “homme fatale.”
Vico Escorcia will also co-star as the missing girl and catalyst to the neo-noir tale.
The production has used the multi-union white paper “The Safe Way Forward” to create a risk assessment and production prevention plan, which will continue to be a collaborative work-in-progress, keeping the safety of the cast and crew at the forefront of the production and with the necessary union approvals.Posey will next be seen starring opposite Donald Sutherland in the thriller Alone.
Edda is among a list of new cast additions that includes Jena Malone, Tatanka Means and Michael Rooker.
