New Trailer for Apple TV+’s “Palm Royale” Showcases Ricky Martin’s Character

Ricky Martin is bracing for a royale experience…

The 52-year-old Puerto Rican singer-songwriter and actor enters high society in the new trailer for the upcoming Apple TV+ series, Palm Royale.

Ricky Martin, Palm Royale

Martin is set to play Robert in the comedy series that stars Kristen Wiig, Alison Janney, Laura Dern, Kaia Gerber, Bruce Dern and Carol Burnett, who will be making “extra special guest” appearances.

Loosely based on the novel Mr. and Mrs. American Pie by Juliet McDanielPalm Royale marks Martin’s first television project since Ryan Murphy’s drama The Assassination of Gianni Versace on FX, in which he played Antonio D’Amico.

In the trailer, Martin is seen as a server at an exclusive club serving up martinis.

Later, he’s show swimming in a pool where he asks Wiig’s character, Maxine, who’s assimilating into the wealthy class, “Do you know anything about rich people?”

According to an official description of the television series, Palm Royale follows Maxine as she “attempts to cross that impermeable line between the haves and the have-nots … ‘Palm Royale’ asks the same question that still baffles us today: ‘How much of yourself are you willing to sacrifice to get what someone else has?’ Set during the powder keg year of 1969, ‘Palm Royale’ is a testament to every outsider fighting for their chance to truly belong.”

The series is written, executive produced, and showrun by Abe Sylvia for Aunt Sylvia’s Moving Picture Company. The first three episodes of Palm Royale premiere March 20 on Apple TV+, followed by new episodes every Wednesday through May 8.

Javier Bardem to Receive Maltin Modern Master Award at This Year’s Santa Barbara Film Festival

Javier Bardem is officially a master

The 52-year-old Spanish Oscar-winning actor will be honored with the prestigious Maltin Modern Master Award at the 37th annual edition of the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Javier BardemBardem will be feted alongside his Being the Ricardos co-star Nicole Kidman on Thursday, March 10 when they’ll engage with veteran film historian and critic Leonard Maltin for an in-person conversation about their careers leading up to this year’s performances as Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball in Aaron Sorkin’s acclaimed film from Amazon Studios.

Bardem and Kidman recently received individual SAG Award nominations in the lead actor and actress categories.

Bardem and Kidman, who have never before worked together, previously won Oscars for No Country for Old Men (2007) and The Hours (2002), respectively. Each has a long career of acclaimed performances.

“Nicole Kidman continues to challenge and reinvent herself year after year. Javier Bardem’s talent is a gift to the world. Only in Hollywood could these actors find themselves playing America’s all time favorite TV couple. It’s cause for celebration,” Maltin said.

Santa Barbara International Film Festival

The Modern Master Award was established in 1995 and is the highest accolade presented by SBIFF. Created to honor an individual who has enriched our culture through accomplishments in the motion picture industry, it was re-named the Maltin Modern Master Award in 2015 in honor of longtime SBIFF moderator and renowned film critic Leonard Maltin.

Past recipients include Bill Murray, Brad Pitt, Glenn Close, Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton, Bruce Dern, Ben Affleck, Christopher Plummer, Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, Clint Eastwood, Cate Blanchett, Will Smith, George Clooney and Peter Jackson.

This is the first time a pair of actors will be honored together.

Other Santa Barbara tributes previously announced include Benedict Cumberbatch with the Vanguard AwardKing Richard stars Will Smith and Aunjanue Ellis for Outstanding Performers of the Year, Kristen Stewart for the American Riviera Award, and collectively named for Virtuoso Awards are West Side Story’s Ariana DeBoseCODA actors Emilia Jones and Troy KotsurRed Rocket’s  Simon RexLicorice Pizza’s Alana Haim, and Saniyya Sidney from King Richard.

The 37th Santa Barbara Film Festival is set to take place in-person March 2-12. Official events including screenings, filmmaker Q&As, industry panels and celebrity tributes will be held throughout the city including at the historic Arlington Theatre.

Julio César Cedillo to Star in the Indie Dramedy “Chocolate Lizards”

Julio César Cedillo has a new role…

The 51-year-old Mexican-American actor will star in Chocolate Lizards, an indie dramedy based on Cole Thompson’s 1999 novel of the same name.

Julio César Cedillo

Cedillo will star opposite Rudy Pankow and Carrie-Anne Moss, as well as Oscar nominees Thomas Haden Church and Bruce Dern.

The project is currently in production in Texas.

The film centers on Erwin Vandeveer (Pankow), a Harvard-educated actor just recently fired from the first real acting job he’s ever had in New Orleans, who hits the road back to Los Angeles, only to have his car break down outside Buffalo Gap, Texas. There, he meets roughneck Merle Luskey (Church), who is about to lose his oil drilling operation in 30 days, unless he can come up with the money to pay off his bank note.

These two down-and-outers at the end of their ropes subsequently join forces with Faye (Moss), the manager of the local cafe and unofficial mayor of Buffalo Gap, in an unlikely scheme to avoid disaster and try to hit an oil bonanza before Merle’s time runs out. With a little comical cunning and a lot more luck, the two just may pull off a last-minute miracle.

Mark Lambert Bristol is directing the film from a script by Julie B. Denny.

Cedillo is best known for the title role in the 2005 film The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.

The Weinstein Company to Release Bichir’s “The Hateful Eight” on Christmas Day

Demian Bichir is preparing for a Hateful Christmas

The Weinstein Company has announced plans to give Quentin Tarantino’s new movie The Hateful Eight, starring the 51-year-old Mexican actor, an exclusive two-week roadshow in 70mm nationwide beginning Christmas Day.

Demian Bichir

The plan is to follow that with a digital theatrical release on January 8. The Western shoot-em-up is Tarantino’s follow-up to 2012’s Django Unchained, for which he won the Original Screenplay Oscar. That also was released on December 25.

It will mark the widest 70mm release that the industry has seen in more than 20 years, TWC said. Tarantino has been one of the biggest proponents of the format and was part of the filmmaker-led fight to keep the film stock division open at Kodak, which had decided to scrap the unit altogether until it was resurrected in February.

Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Bruce Dern also star in the pic.

Bichir portrays Bob, “The Mexican,” in the film.

Bichir to Star in in Quentin Tarantino’s Post-Civil War Western “The Hateful Eight”

Demián Bichir is hateful

The 51-year-old Mexican American actor has been cast in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, the epic post-Civil War Western from The Weinstein Company.

Demian Bichir

The plot: A stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth and his fugitive Daisy Domergue, race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren, a former Union soldier-turned-infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix, a Southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new sheriff.

Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie’s, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces: Bob (portrayed by Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray, the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage, and Confederate Gen. Sanford Smithers. As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, the eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all.

Bichir, making his first appearance in a Tarantino film, joins a cast that includes Channing Tatum, Samuel L Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Bruce Dern.

The Hateful Eight begins shooting early next year in Telluride, with The Weinstein Company eyeing a 2015 release.

Cuarón Named Best Director at the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards

Alfonso Cuarón really does know how to make movies for grownups

The 52-year-old Mexican filmmaker, nominated for three Academy Awards, recently picked up the trophy for Best Director at the 13th annual AARP Movies for Grownups awards, held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

Alfonso Cuarón

The voting process for the 16 categories took place in early December 2013 and was officially announced in January. Nebraska’s Bruce Dern, who won for best actor, received a standing ovation. Calling the event a “geezer’s dinner,” Dern went on to say, “I’m very grateful, and I’ll tell you why. When Nebraska found out that I won an AARP award, they thought that was the biggest award there is,” joked Dern in his speech.

Cuarón won the award for his critically acclaimed 3d sci-fi thriller Gravity, which has earned numerous awards this season.

When I started with Gravity, I was not eligible to be a member of AARP,” the director joked. “Cinema is transcending generations and I’m grateful for all of you who saw the film. The adversity in the movie is constant in our life and it shapes who we are.”

Meanwhile, Philomena Lee, the real-life inspiration for Philomena, also received a standing ovation as she accepted best actress award on Judi Dench’s behalf, who was in India filming The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 2