Jharrel Jerome to Star as Anthony Robles in “Unstoppable”

Posted on March 19, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Jharrel Jerome is unstoppable…

The 25-year-old Afro-Dominican American actor, an Emmy winner and EP/star of the upcoming Prime Video series I’m a Virgo that just premiered at SXSW, has signed on to star in Unstoppable, the film starring Jennifer Lopez and directed by Billy Goldenberg.

The film follows the true story of Anthony Robles, a three-time All-American wrestler born with one leg who won a national championship at Arizona State.

Robles will reportedly be heavily involved in the project, which Amazon Studios is in talks to acquire.

The second big project from Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity and Amazon is coming together rather quickly before the April 5 opening of their first movie, Air, which is getting a theatrical release and debuted at SXSW on Saturday. Artists Equity is co-founded by RedBird Capital.

Robles was born without a right leg. At the age of 14, he tried wrestling for the first time, at a mere 90 pounds. His first year he went 5-8, but remained determined that he could be a champion in the sport one day. Robles is also an inspirational speaker.

In 2019 he broke the Guinness world record for most pull-ups in a minute with 62 reps.

Jerome won an Emmy for Outstanding Actor in a Limited Series for the Ava DuVernay Netflix series When They See Us. His other credits include the film Concrete Cowboy and the Stephen King series Mr. Mercedes. He’ll soon be seen co-starring in HBO Max’s Steven Soderbergh series Full Circle.

Jerome is an EP on the Boots Riley Amazon series I’m a Virgo. The darkly comedic, fantastical coming-of-age joyride center son Cootie (Jerome), a 13-foot-tall young Black man in Oakland, CA. Having grown up hidden away, passing time on a diet of comic books and TV shows, he escapes to experience the beauty and contradictions of the real world. He forms friendships, finds love, navigates awkward situations, and encounters his idol, a real-life superhero named The Hero, played by Walton Goggins. I’m A Virgo is a mythical odyssey that questions the purpose of the mythical odyssey.

Johnny Sibilly Signs with Creative Artists Agency (CAA)

Posted on March 18, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Johnny Sibilly has new representation…

The 35-year-old Cuban & Dominican American actor has signed with Creative Artists Agency (CAA).

Best known for his role as Wilson on the first two seasons of HBO Max’s Emmy-winning comedy series Hacks, Sibilly will return for Season 3 this year.

Sibilly previously starred as Noah Hernandez in the Peacock Original series, Queer As Folk.

He has also appeared opposite CAA client Billy Porter in the FX series Pose, and alongside CAA client Liza Koshy in YouTube’s Liza On Demand.

As a content creator, Sibilly is a fervent advocate for LGBTQ+ and Latino rights, growing a considerable social following as a result of his progressive and comedic voice that includes his popular online character, “Julissa.”

He has also partnered with brands including Viktor&Rolf, AT&T, 21 Seeds, Smirnoff, Abercrombie & Fitch, Nissan, Oculus and Bonobos.

Colman Domingo Among Voice Cast of DreamWorks Animation’s Animated Feature “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken”

Posted on March 17, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Colman Domingo is getting animated…

The 53-year-old Belizean-Guatemalan American actor and social justice activist, an Emmy and Tony Award winner, will form part of the voice cast of DreamWorks Animation’s animated feature, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken.

The film is set for wide release via Universal on June 30th.

Domingo joins a voice cast that includes Lana Condor in the title role, Toni Collette, Jane Fonda, Annie Murphy, Sam Richardson, Blue Chapman and Jaboukie Young-White.

Directed by Kirk De Micco, with Faryn Pearl as co-director, the film is an action-comedy about a shy teenager who discovers that she’s part of a legendary royal lineage of mythical sea krakens and that her destiny, in the depths of the oceans, is bigger than she ever dreamed.

Sweet, awkward 16-year-old Ruby Gillman (Condor) is desperate to fit in at Oceanside High, but she mostly just feels invisible. She’s math-tutoring her skater-boy crush (Young-White), who only seems to admire her for her fractals, and she’s prevented from hanging out with the cool kids at the beach because her over-protective supermom (Collette) has forbade her from ever getting in the water. But when she breaks her mom’s #1 rule, Ruby will discover that she is a direct descendant of the warrior Kraken queens and is destined to inherit the throne from her commanding grandmother (Fonda), the Warrior Queen of the Seven Seas.

The Kraken are sworn to protect the oceans of the world against the vain, power-hungry mermaids who have been battling with the Kraken for eons. But there’s one major, and immediate, problem with that: The school’s beautiful, popular new girl, Chelsea (Murphy) just happens to be a mermaid. Ruby will ultimately need to embrace who she is and go big to protect those she loves most.

Rounding out the cast of Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken are Will Forte and Nicole Byer, Liza Koshy, Ramona Young, Eduardo Franco and Echo Kellum. While it’s not yet clear who wrote the script, Kelly Cooney Cilella served as the film’s producer, with Grammy-winning composer and Universal Composers Initiative alum Stephanie Economou penning the score.

Alfred Molina to Star in Indie Dramedy “When We Get There”

Posted on March 15, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Alfred Molina is going there…

The 69-year-old half-Spanish English actor will star in the indie dramedy When We Get There, the feature debut of writer-director Ryan Patrick Welsh.

Mindy Sterling and William Katt are also set, with newcomers Chris Heeder, Jamie Lien and Alek Kristopher rounding out the cast.

Co-directed by Justin Giddings, When We Get There tells the story of brothers Cal (Heeder) and Ty (Kristopher), who embark on a cross-country trek to meet the father they’ve never known, and the only family they have left. Along with Cal’s long-term girlfriend Ellie (Lien) and a new guitar named Stevie, the trio are forced to navigate uncertain futures on a 2000-mile journey in a car on its last leg. Along the way they discover what, and who, it’s worth showing up for.

Molina portrays Ellie’s abrasive but lovable father Marcus, with Sterling and Katt as Florence and Bob, two vagabond campers the kids meet along the way.

Molina recently reprised his Marvel role as evil genius Doc Ock in Sony’s Tom Holland-led blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home, which grossed over $1.9B worldwide, having first played the role opposite Tobey Maguire in 2004’s Spider-Man 2.

He also recently led the Prime Video mystery series Three Pines and has additionally been seen on such series as Angie Tribeca, Feud and Show Me a Hero, to name a few.

The Golden Globe and two-time Emmy-nominated actor has worked consistently since the late 1970s and has appeared on the film side in such acclaimed titles as The Front Runner, Love Is Strange, An Education, Identity, Frida, Chocolat, Magnolia, Boogie Nights and many more.

Oscar Isaac In Talks to Star In & Executive Produce Crime Thriller “Helltown”

Posted on March 13, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Oscar Isaac may be hell bound

The 44-year-old Cuban-Guatemalan actor is in talks to star in and executive produce Helltown, a project based on the book of the same name by Casey Sherman.

Filmmaker Ed Berger is set to direct and executive produce the eight-episode crime thriller in development at Amazon Studios from Mohamad El Masri, Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey’s Team Downey.

Written by El Masri, who serves as executive producer and showrunner, Helltown centers on Kurt Vonnegut (Isaac) before he was a renowned author and cultural lightning rod. In 1969 Kurt was a struggling novelist and car salesman living life with his wife and five children on Cape Cod. When two women disappear and are later discovered murdered underneath the sand dunes on the outskirts of Provincetown, Kurt becomes obsessed and embroiled in the chilling hunt for a serial killer and forms a dangerous bond with the prime suspect.

Isaac would executive produce with Gena Konstantinakos through his Mad Gene banner.

Isaac, who recently headlined Marvel’s Disney+ series Moon Knight, can be seen alongside Rachel Brosnahan in the revival of Lorraine Hanberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, directed by Anne Kauffman at the BAM Harvey Theater.

Last year, he was nominated for a SAG and Emmy award for HBO’s Scenes from a Marriage.

Isaac launched Mad Gene in 2019 with his wife, writer and director Elvira Lind. The company’s first project, short film The Letter Room, was nominated for a 2021 Academy Award.

Michael Cuesta to Direct Pilot Episode of Marvel Studios’ “Daredevil: Born Again”

Posted on March 11, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Michael Cuesta is born again…

The 59-year-old Latino director, who helmed the pilots for shows like Dexter and Homeland, will direct the first episode of Marvel Studios’ Daredevil: Born Again.

Production on the 18-episode Disney+ series begins this month in New York and marks the true integration of characters that began life on Netflix, when the streamer had a slate of Marvel series in the mid-2010s, into the popular and dominant Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Charlie Cox, who starred as Matt Murdoch, aka Daredevil, the man without fear, is reprising his role for the series after making brief and teasing cameos in Spider-Man: No Way Home and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.

Vincent D’Onofrio is back as Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime — his first appearance in the MCU was a cameo in Hawkeye — and Jon Bernthal is returning as the hard-edged vigilante known as the Punisher.

Other actors on the call sheet include Michael Gandolfini, Margarita Levieva and Sandrine Holt, the latter of whom is playing Vanessa Fisk, the wife of Fisk. Michael Gaston (Chicago P.D., Mayor of Kingstown) is also in the series.

Born Again takes its title from a landmark Daredevil storyline published in 1986, written by Frank Miller and drawn by David Mazzuchelli. The show is deviating from that plot, although by how much is unclear. The Punisher, for example, made no appearance in the comic story. Daredevil versus Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin, remains the focal point.

Writers and executive producers Matt Corman and Chris Ord are behind the show, which is expected to bow in the spring of 2024. Cuesta is only directing the opening episode, according to sources. Other directors are being lined up to helm blocks of episodes.

Cuesta is one of the top helmers in the pilot game. In addition to directing the pilots for Dexter and Homeland, both acclaimed gritty dramas and for which he earned an Emmy nomination on the latter, he also directed the pilots for police show Blue Blood and procedural Sherlock Holmes mystery show Elementary.

Directing a pilot is an important task as it normally sets the casting, tone, and look of a series and is seen as a test for a show’s promise as well as a chance to put its best foot forward. And while in the streaming age many shows tend to be given straight-up series orders, helming the first episode remains equally as important.

Other recent series work for Cuesta includes episodes of Dopesick and Billions, and he also directed the action thriller American Assassin, which starred Dylan O’Brien and Michael Keaton.

Sofia Carson to Perform Oscar-Nominated Track “Applause” at This Year’s Academy Awards

Posted on February 24, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Sofia Carson has a date with Oscar…

The 29-year-old Colombian American actress/singer and Diane Warren will perform “Applause,” the Oscar-nominated Best Song track, at the 95th annual Academy Awards next month.

Warren wrote the music and lyrics for the track from the film Tell It Like a Woman, earning her 14th Best Song Oscar nod since 1988 and sixth in as many years.

She has yet to claim the hardware but did receive a Governors Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in November and snagged an Emmy for The Hunting Ground song “Til It Happens to You,” sung by Lady Gaga.

Carson played the Evil Queen’s daughter Evie in Disney’s Descendants and its sequels, and the first film’s soundtrack topped the Billboard 200 chart in 2015.

She released her self-titled debut album in 2022.

She also starred in last year’s Netflix film Purple Hearts and next appears in Jaume Collet-Serra’s Carry On.

“Applause” is competing for the Best Song Oscar against “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick, “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — which Super Bowl halftime star Rihanna will perform at the ceremony — “Naatu Naatu” from RRR and “This Is A Life” from Everything Everywhere All at Once.

The 95th Academy Awards will be handed out on Sunday, March 12, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Colman Domingo Co-Producing the Broadway Production of “Fat Ham”

Posted on February 12, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Colman Domingo is hamming it up…

The 53-year-old Belizean-Guatemalan American actor and social justice activist, an Emmy winner and Tony Award, has signed on as co-producer of the upcoming Broadway production of James Ijames’ Pultizer Prize winning play Fat Ham.

Beginning performances on Tuesday, March 21, the production of Fat Ham at American Airlines Theatre has an official opening night of Wednesday, April 12 for a strictly limited 14-week engagement through Sunday, June 25.

The play, which has been described as a “comic tragedy,” reinvents Shakespeare’s Hamlet by setting it at a backyard cookout where Juicy, a queer, Black Southern college kid grappling with questions of identity, is met by the ghost of his father who shows up demanding that Juicy avenge his murder, even as Juicy is trying to break the cycles of trauma and violence in service of his own liberation.

Fat Ham on Broadway is a Public Theater and National Black Theatre co-production.

“I am beyond thrilled to be a co-producer on The National Black Theater and Public Theater transfer of James Ijames thrilling Fat Ham directed by my dear friend and visionary director Saheem Ali,” Domingo said in a statement to Deadline. “This is the kind of theater that we need on Broadway – bold reimaginings of stories that fuel us all.”

The Broadway transfer of Fat Ham from the Off Broadway Public Theatre represents National Black Theatre’s first production on Broadway, and only the third play to be transferred by a Black theater in Broadway’s century-long history. The complete Off Broadway cast will make the move to Broadway.

Domingo currently stars in Fear of the Walking Dead and Euphoria, and has completed filming of The Color Purple. He is a 2011 Tony Award nominee for his performance in The Scottsboro Boys musical.

Netflix Gives Series Order to “The Madness,” Starring Colman Domingo

Posted on February 8, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Colman Domingo is embracing the madness…

Netflix has given a series order to The Madness, a conspiracy thriller starring the 53-year-old Belizean-Guatemalan American Emmy-winning actor.

The eight-episode limited series hails from Chernin Entertainment via its first-look deal with Netflix, creator and co-showrunner Stephen Belber and co-showrunner VJ Boyd.

In The Madness, media pundit Muncie Daniels (Domingo) must fight for his innocence and his life after he stumbles upon a murder deep in the Poconos woods. As the walls close in, Muncie strives to reconnect with his estranged family – and his lost ideals – in order to survive.

Belber and Boyd executive produce with Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping and Kaitlin Dahill for Chernin Entertainment (The North Road Company). Clément Virgo will direct and executive produce the first two and final two episodes. Quyen Tran and Jessica Lowrey will each direct two middle episodes.

“Stephen Belber and VJ Boyd thrive in creating suspense driven emotional stories that connect with broad audiences,” said Topping, President, Chernin Entertainment. “We look forward to seeing them bring this timely conspiracy thriller to life and to continue our partnership with Netflix.”

“The Madness is a fresh take on the conspiracy thriller — turning the genre on its head with its multi-layered characters, propulsive action and swift pace,” said Peter Friedlander, Vice President of Scripted Series, Netflix, US and Canada. “We are proud to have such a powerhouse team assembled to bring this dynamic story to life for Netflix viewers around the world, and to continue producing great entertainment with team Chernin.”

Domingo’s critically acclaimed film work includes If Beale Street Could Talk, Selma, Lincoln, Candyman, Without Remorse, Zola, and he was a Film Independent Spirit, NAACP, SAG and Critics Choice Award nominee for his performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

He’ll next be in seen in the title role in Netflix biopic Rustin, the first film production from Michelle and Barack Obama’s Higher Ground.

Domingo won his first Emmy award, as well as an Imagen Award, for best supporting actor for HBO’s Euphoria. Domingo can currently be seen as Victor Strand in Fear The Walking Dead.

Rita Moreno to Receive Casting Society’s Career Honor

Posted on January 30, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Rita Moreno is getting a cast-tastic honor..

The 91-year-old Puerto Rican living legend, an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award) winner is set to receive the Casting Society’s career honor, the Lynn Stalmaster Award, at the 38th annual Artios Awards next month.

Yvette Nicole Brown will host the ceremony on March 9 at the Beverly Hilton.

Moreno, whose 80 for Brady hits theaters this Friday, won an Oscar for her portrayal of Anita in West Side Story. She also received the Producers Guild’s Stanley Kramer Award in 2002. Those are among the latest accolades in a seven-decade career that began with her Broadway debut at 13. She has appeared in more than 40 feature films and countless television series including most recently Norman Lear’s remake of One Day at a Time. Her documentary Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.

Moreno’s EGOT-qualifying awards also include two Emmys, a Grammy in 1973 and a Tony two years later. She also has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama, the SAG Life Achievement Award, the Peabody Career Achievement Award and a Kennedy Center Honor.

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