Raúl Castillo to Star in Paramount‘s “Smile” Sequel

Raúl Castillo has a new reason to smile

The 46-year-old Mexican American actor has been cast in Paramount‘s Smile sequel.

Raul CastilloCastillo is among a list of new cast additions that includes Miles Gutierrez-Riley, who starred in The Wilds.

The film’s plot and character details are being kept under wraps.

The duo joins the previously announced cast: Naomi Scott, Lukas Gage, Kyle Gallner, Rosemarie DeWitt and Dylan Gelula.

Smile writer and director returns for the second installment to again direct from his own script, with Temple Hill producing.

Smile 2 is currently slated for release on October 18, 2024, when it will go up against a still-unnamed title from Universal Pictures.

Going on to gross over $217M in theaters, even if it was initially set up for release on Paramount+, Smile was one of the great, unexpected box office successes of 2022. One of several original studio horror films of late to expand into a franchise, it tells the story of Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon), a psychiatrist who becomes increasingly convinced she is being threatened by an uncanny entity, after witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient.

Castillo most recently starred in the Amazon film Cassandro opposite Gael Garia Bernal. He’s set to appear in HBO‘s Mark Ruffalo-led series, the Untitled Brad Ingelsby Task Force Project (w/t), currently in pre-production.

Prior television credits also include HBO’s Looking, Starz’s Vida and Netflix’s Atypical to name a few; Army of the DeadCha Cha Real SmoothKnives Out and We The Animals are among his film credits.

Gutierrez-Riley made his TV debut in the second season of Prime Video’s The Wilds, where he portrayed Ivan. In September 2022, Miles he starred in Paramount’s film adaptation of On The Come Up, which made its world premiere on the opening night of TIFF. Next up, he will star opposite Corey Fogelman in Tommy Dorfman’s directorial debut I Wish You All the Best, premiering at SXSW in March. It has also been announced that Gutierrez-Riley will star in Disney+’s WandaVision spinoff, Agatha: Darkhold Diaries.

Raúl Castillo Starring in Crypto-Heist Thriller “Cold Wallet”

Raúl Castillo is the cold

The 45-year-old Mexican American actor will star in Cold Wallet, a crypto-heist thriller from director Cutter Hodierne, which has wrapped production.

Castillo will star opposite Melonie Diaz, Tony Cavalero and Josh Brener in the project.

Inspired by real stories, the film follows a rag-tag team of Redditors who lose everything in a crypto ponzi scheme and plot to kidnap the ‘financial influencer’ who screwed them over.

The film was in production when news of the FTX scandal broke.

The script was written by John Hibey — the 2023 Sundance Screenwriting Lab Fellow with whom Hodierne penned his first feature, Fishing Without Nets. Serving as the foundation for it was a story by Hodierne, Derek McMurtry and Hibey.

Producers included Benjamin Wiessner of Vanishing Angle along with Hibey and Hodierne. McMurtry, Castillo, Cavalero, Diaz, Brener and crypto guru Justin Staple are the executive producers.

“I can’t stress enough how thrilled I am to be a part of Cutter’s new feature. I was a big fan of Fishing Without Nets and, though I feel our film is just as timely and relevant, I think he has managed to move in a whole new direction,” Castillo told Deadline. “He and his producers have put together an outstanding crew and an incredibly pitch-perfect cast. I am proud to share the screen with every single one of them.”

Castillo is a Gotham and Independent Spirit Award nominee coming off a year of work in decorated titles including The Inspection (A24), Hustle (Netflix) and Cha Cha Real Smooth (Apple TV+). Other upcoming feature projects for the actor include the action-thriller Breathe with Milla Jovovich, Sam Worthington and Common, FX’s limited series Class of ’09 premiering May 10th, and Prime Video’s Gael García Bernal starrer Cassandro from Roger Ross Williams, which world premiered this year at Sundance.

Best known for starring alongside Adam Devine in Danny McBride’s megachurch comedy The Righteous Gemstones, now heading into its third season on HBO, Cavalero has also been seen in ABC’s The Conners, TBS’ Miracle Workers, Hulu’s The Binge and the Netflix film The Dirt which had him playing Ozzy Osborne, among other projects.

A two-time Independent Spirit Award nominee, Diaz most recently led The CW’s reboot of Charmed, which ran for four seasons. Notable feature credits for the actress include The First PurgeAll About NinaThe Belko ExperimentThe CobblerFruitvale Station and Be Kind Rewind, to name a few.

Alicia Sanz Starring in the Psychological Horror-Thriller “Open House”

It’s Open season for Alicia Sanz.

The 34-year-old Spanish actress is starring opposite Raúl Castillo in topline Open House, a recently-wrapped psychological horror-thriller written and directed by the duo of David Charbonier and Justin Powell.

Alicia SanzThe film from Kinogo Pictures and Mad Descent, which shot in Los Angeles, follows a realtor who must survive a night of terror when a deranged client shows up at her open house.

Ryan Scaringe produced along with Charbonier and Powell, with Amy Lippens and Jilbert Daniel being joined as executive producerss by Sanz and Castillo. UTA Independent Film Group is repping worldwide sales.

Charbonier and Powell made their feature directorial debut with 2020’s The Boy Behind the Door — a critically acclaimed horror-thriller starring Lonnie Chavis that was released by Shudder after premiering at Fantastic Fest. The pair subsequently wrote, directed and exec produced The Djinn, a supernatural horror released by IFC Midnight in 2021.

Perhaps best known for starring in the historical action-drama series El Cid from Prime Video and the thriller series Now and Then from Apple TV+, Sanz has also previously been seen on such series as Shots Fired and From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, among others.

Her notable film credits include the thriller Billionaire Boys Club with Ansel Elgort, and April Mullen’s upcoming sci-fi thriller Hello Stranger with Robbie Amell, Jordana Brewster, Simu Liu and Sam Worthington.

Castillo is a Gotham and Independent Spirit Award nominee who recently starred opposite Jeremy Pope in Elegance Bratton’s acclaimed feature directorial debut The Inspection for A24.

The actor has also recently appeared in such acclaimed films as HustleCha Cha Real Smooth and Army of the Dead, among others.

His notable TV credits include The Accidental Wolf, VidaAtypicalSeven Seconds and Looking.