Danny Pino Lands Leading Role in MGM+’s Crime Thriller “Hotel Cocaine”

Posted on March 15, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Danny Pino is checking in to a new project…

The 48-year-old Cuban American actor, who stars in Mayans M.C., will star as the lead in Hotel Cocaine, MGM+’s upcoming crime thriller from creator Chris Brancato.

Hotel Cocaine is the story of Roman Compte (Pino), a Cuban expatriate who fought against Fidel Castro in the Bay of Pigs invasion and re-made his life in Miami. He is general manager of the Mutiny Hotel, the glamorous epicenter of the Miami cocaine scene of late ‘70s and early ‘80s. The Mutiny Hotel was Casablanca on cocaine, a glitzy nightclub, restaurant and hotel frequented by Florida businessmen and politicians, international narcos, CIA and FBI agents, models, sports stars and musicians. At the center of it all was Compte, who was doing his best to keep it all going and fulfill his own American dream.

Brancato serves as executive producer and showrunner. Guillermo Navarro will direct the pilot episode and executive produce the series, with Michael Panes and Alfredo Barrios Jr. also serving as executive producers. The eight-episode series from MGM+ Studios, in partnership with MGM Television, will begin production in May in the Dominican Republic, and is slated to premiere in early 2024.

Pino, born and raised in Miami, stars as organized crime boss Miguel Galindo in Mayans M.C., which is heading into its fifth and final season on FX.

He made his episodic directorial debut in the drama’s fourth season. Pino, also known for his roles as police detective Nick Amaro on Law & Order: SVU and Detective Scotty Valens on Cold Case, recently completed the short film, Union de Reyes (Union of Kings), which he wrote, directed, produced and starred in.

Hotel Cocaine will be distributed internationally by MGM.

Carlos V. Gutierrez’s “Barton Creek” Biopic One Step Closer to Production

Posted on September 29, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Carlos V. Gutierrez is one set closer to beginning work on his next project…

Producer John Martinez O’Felan has secured financing and set his next project, Barton Creek, a Latino-led and LatinX inclusive feature biopic written and directed by the award-winning Cuban-American director.

The feature follows the triumphant life story of Cuban political exile and innocence project participant Carlos Lavernia, who was wrongfully convicted to life in prison and spent 15 years behind bars before being proven innocent.

Lavernia is a Havana-born immigrant and former Cuban soldier imprisoned in Fidel Castro’s Cuba before being sent on the Mariel Boatlift of 1980 to live in the U.S in exile. While in his early 30’s, he settled in Austin, Texas, where he began his new life. After hanging out at a local landmark known as the Barton Springs Pool area, an area hot-spot known for day drinking at the time, Lavernia finds himself questioned by authorities for predatory crimes based on his racial identity. Having issues with PTSD from his past life, Lavernia has a manic episode during questioning, leading to greater suspicion. With a police sketch as the only key evidence, Lavernia is arrested and detained. After inadequate representation by a court-appointed attorney, he was convicted to life in prison based on the color of his skin and his lack of proper English.

Throughout his 15-year conviction, Lavernia maintained his innocence and methodically taught himself English and gained knowledge of the legal system in the prison’s law library, self-representing yearly appeals to only meet rejection until 1999, when he eventually wrote Johnny Cochran, which led to an introduction to Barry Scheck, Lavernia’s case was finally reopened for DNA evidence review, new technology at the time, and overseen by Barry Scheck and the Innocence Project.

During the review process, his legal team discovered that the evidence used in Lavernia’s case, which was supposed to be destroyed, was somehow lodged in a file cabinet and preserved — a miracle that led to Lavernia’s exoneration, making national and international headlines, only for Lavernia to later wait in holding for five more years while the U.S Immigration office cleared his green card status, to avoid being sent back to Cuba.

O’Felan, under his Mankind Entertainment banner, and Gutierrez will produce through Rite of Passage Pictures LLC, a new Austin, Texas-based shingle set up with local entrepreneur Jay Lamy, to develop stories based on human struggles that are inspiring, enlightening, or encouraging through their central characters.

O’Felan says, “Beyond the wrongful conviction based on racial profiling, Mr. Lavernia’s life journey represents a greater humility and perseverance which leads to good overpowering evil. Coming from a Latin American country, His story offers a crucial representation of the struggles of Latino history in 1980s America, and stories like these are inspiring and essential and need to be heard.”

Casting on Barton Creek is now underway with an eye toward fast-tracking production in Austin and Colombia in early 2023.

Gutierrez is a Miami-born Cuban-American filmmaker who attended film school at Tufts University, where he was awarded a Graduate Fellowship to New York University’s Master Film Program. While at NYU, he won the DGA Student Film Awards for Best Latino Filmmaker and the Grand Prize in the HBO Latino Film Festival Short Film Contest. He was honored by the AMPTP with a Student Academy Award nomination for his short film Wet Foot, Dry Foot, leading his work to become selected and win the Showtime Network’s Latino Filmmaker’s showcase. Gutierrez’s feature indie film debut Locked In starred Mena Suvari and was released by Saban Films / Paramount, and recently wrapped his second feature Stay Safe, which is currently in post-production.

Mía Maestro to Star as Fidel Castro’s Real-Life Lover in Miguel Bardem’s “Alina of Cuba”

Posted on August 4, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Mía Maestro has landed her next proyecto…

The 47-year-old Argentine actress will star in Miguel Bardem’s Alina of Cuba.

The Imagen Award winner will portray Natalia “Naty” Revuelta, the Cuban-born socialite who as a passionate love affair with Fidel Castro.

James Franco will play the late Cuban leader.

They join previously announced actress Ana Villafañe who is portraying Alina Fernandez aka Castro’s Daughter. The screenplay from Oscar-nominated scribe Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries) and Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz, follows the true-life story of Cuban exile turned social advocate, Fernandez, whose birth was the result of the tryst between Revuelta and Castro.

Revuelta sacrificed her and her physician husband’s personal belongings and finances to help fund the start of the communist revolution.

Fernandez learned that she was Fidel Castro’s daughter at the age of 10 when after years of secret visits to her home, her mother finally revealed that “El Comandante” was her biological father. Alina grew to become one of Castro’s most outspoken critics, arrested on more than one occasion for trying to leave, and was classified as a dissident forbidden to travel outside of Cuba. Ultimately, she defected to Spain in 1993, an event that drew headlines from every major news network around the world, before she made Miami her permanent home.

Rounding out the supporting cast are Alanna de la Rosa, Maria Cecilia Botero (Encanto), Harding Junior, and Cuban-born actors Sian Chiong and Rafael Ernesto Hernandez.

The film is being shot entirely on location in and around Cartagena and Bogota, with Colombia’s colonial Spanish architecture and design playing for Castro-era Havana, Cuba. Cameras roll on August 15.

Maestro recently wrapped the Apple+ anthology series Extrapolations, starring opposite Edward Norton, as well as the lead in Domenico De Feudis’ Italian feature Il Legame (aka The Binding) for Netflix, produced by Academy Award winner Paolo Sorrentino. Maestro recently starred in the acclaimed Sundance Film Festival premiere The Cow That Sang Into The Future. She is known for her roles in Carlos Saura’s Oscar-nominated feature Tango, Walter Salles’ The Motorcycle Diaries, Julie Taymor’s Frida, as well as her recent role in FX’s hit series Mayans M.C.

Gael Garcia Bernal to Portray Salvador Dali in New Podcast “Playboy Interview”

Posted on June 25, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Gael Garcia Bernal’s art is about to imitate art life…

The 42-year-old Mexican actor and producer is joining a slew of stars who’ll portray famous figures across history in a new podcast series from Playboy and Audio Up.

The two companies are launching Playboy Interview, an audio series that features teleplay-style re-enactments of the most iconic Playboy interview conversations.

In addition to Garcia Bernal, other stars set to take part in the program are Rosanna Arquette, Taye Diggs, Maya Hawke, Shea Whigham, Michael Shannon, Kevin Corrigan and Gina Gershon.

The series, which is set to debut in September, will see Arquette voice feminist pioneer Betty Friedan, Diggs will portray Muhammad Ali, Garcia Bernal plays Salvador Dali, Shannon is Tennessee Williams, Shea Whigham is John Wayne, Maya Hawke is Helen Gurley Brown, Kevin Corrigan is Frank Sinatra and Gina Gershon is Oriana Fallaci.

The first two episodes will feature “conversations” with Friedan and Ali.

The series is based on the classic Playboy Interview, which started in 1962 with Alex Haley’s conversation with Miles Davis and has run for more than 500 interviews including the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Fidel Castro, Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Steve Jobs, Whoopi Goldberg and Maya Angelou.

“Working on the Playboy Interview was an incredible experience,” said Maya Hawke, who also portrays Ayn Rand in the second season, which is likely to launch in early 2022. “I got the rare opportunity to portray two of history’s most influential, controversial, and complicated women. I was allowed to inhabit the characters rather than being asked to impersonate them, which left me thinking about their respective perspectives for weeks after. And I felt inspired. Even if I don’t agree with them about everything, or anything – their strength, persistence, and insistence on being exactly who they are has reminded me to be exactly who I am.”

“Playboy is culturally iconic for many reasons, but their in-depth interviews and journalistic integrity is a large part of what has made the publication so cool,” said Gina Gershon. “I was so happy to work on a project that celebrates Playboy’s historic interviews with so many incredible individuals. I’ve always been fascinated by Oriana Fallaci, and was so excited to be able to take part in bringing her interviews to life. It was so much fun to explore this remarkable woman and share her point of view with the world.”

“We couldn’t be more excited to unveil the first season of the Playboy Interview podcast,” added Rachel Webber, Chief Brand Officer at PLBY Group and producer of the series. “Audio is the perfect format for these intimate and revealing conversations. Each brilliant performance by this incredible cast gives you chills, making you feel like you’re right there in the room as history unfolds.”

“This podcast is the culmination of a personal journey for me having spent seven years as Playboy’s editorial director,” added Audio Up’s Chief Creative Officer Jimmy Jellinek, who adapted, produced and directed all 10 episodes of season one. “Thanks to the explosion of audio as a medium, today we’re able to reintroduce these incredible conversations to a new generation. I have long thought the Playboy Interview would lend itself perfectly to formats off the page. In my wildest dreams I didn’t anticipate that something this magical would be the result.”

“We’ve paired the greatest conversations of the 20th century with the greatest actors of the 21st. Audio Up is in the business of pushing the boundaries of audio entertainment and this project exemplifies that mission in every way,” said Audio Up founder and Chief Executive Officer Jared Gutstadt.

Bacardi Family’s Trials & Tribulations in 1950s Cuba Getting the Television Treatment

Posted on April 25, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

The life story of Facundo Bacardí Massó and his family is heading to the small screen…

MiLu Entertainment and Ian Reichbach are developing a television series based on the Bacardi family’s experiences in 1950s Cuba.

Reichbach is adapting NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten’s well-received book Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba, which fuses the story of the Bacardi family’s famous rum business with Cuba’s tumultuous experience over the last 150 years, including Cuba’s fight for freedom, its tortured relationship with America, and the rise of Fidel Castro.

Andre L III of MiLu Entertainment is producing the bilingual English-Spanish series with 6GEN Films, which consists of Bacardi family members Mari Aixalá, Pepin R. Argamasilla and Juan Bergaz Pessino of Bergaz Productions.

“It’s time to tell the untold story of the Bacardi family,” said Andre L III of MiLu. “Authenticity and passion are the key to great storytelling and it has been a privilege to collaborate with the foremost authorities on the history of the most iconic Cuban family.”

Reichbach is a regular collaborator with Aaron Sorkin, having served as a writer and executive story editor on The Newsroom, and a researcher on movies including Charlie Wilson’s War, Moneyball, The Social Network and The Trial Of The Chicago 7.

MiLu Entertainment’s slate includes features The Thicket, which has Noomi Rapace, Peter Dinklage, Sophia Lillis and Charlie Plummer attached.

del Toro to Star in Cuban Mafia-Themed Film “The Corporation”

Posted on April 7, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Benicio del Toro is joining the Cuban mafia…

The 49-year-old Puerto Rican-American actor will star in The Corporation, which takes place over the decades between the 1950s and 1980s in Miami and New York.

Based on T.J. English’s yet-to-be-published book The Corporation: An Epic Story of the Cuban American Underworld, del Toro will play Jose Miguel Battle Sr., who leads the eponymous and hugely powerful Cuban mafia. Born in Havana, Battle escaped to the U.S. following the rise of Fidel Castro. Alongside his team of fellow Cubans, Battle was trained by the CIA so that he could fight in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

Despite his name, things didn’t go so well for Battle during the attempted invasion, as he was captured, which led to him being imprisoned inside a Cuban prison. Battle failed to find the light side during his incarceration, and, when he was released, he headed straight back to the U.S. where he set off to build a huge criminal empire alongside the same posse of men that he fought with. His empire revolved around drug trafficking, gambling, and, even murder, and made him one of the most powerful crime bosses in the US until his death in 2007.

The nonfiction book will be published in winter 2017 by William Morrow. It’s being called a Cuban version of The Godfather and American Gangster.

del Toro is coming off a sizzling performance in Sicario, and this is an opportunity to play another badass character.

Paramount Studios and Appian Way have the film rights.

A Young Cruz Celebrates Christmas with Cuban Orchestra Sonora Matancera in Just-Released Footage

Posted on December 24, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

It’s a special Christmas gift for Celia Cruz fans…

Festive footage has surfaced of the late Cuban salsa singer performing with the great Cuban orchestra Sonora Matancera.

The video was captured as part of the orchestra’s holiday album, which featured the young Cruz. It was recorded during Cuba’s last Christmas season before Fidel Castro claimed victory for the Revolution at the start of 1959.

In the vintage video, Cruz is spotted swinging her hips and flashing the bright smile that would make her famous as she sings a Spanish version of “Jingle Bells,” titled “Soy Feliz en Navidad.”

The 1958 album Navidades con la Sonora Matancera also included such Cuban-flavored Christmas numbers as “El Cha-Cha-Cha de la Navidad” and “Rumba en Navidad.”

Two years later, Cruz would leave Cuba, never to return. The singer who became known as the Queen of Salsa died in 2003. She remains the world’s best known Cuban artist.

Christmas celebrations were officially banned in 1969, following Castro’s declaration that Cuba was an atheist country at the start of the Revolution. The holiday was reinstated in 1997, anticipating Pope John Paul II’s visit to the island. Some artists in Cuba have since recorded new Cuban Christmas music.

Starz Releases “Magic City” Season Two Trailer Featuring Morales

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Starz hasn’t announced a premiere date for the second season of Magic City… But the network has released a trailer for the acclaimed mob drama, which will see Esai Morales’ return to television.

Set in 1959 Miami shortly after the Cuban Revolution, Magic City tells the story of Ike Evans (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the owner of the Miramar Playa, Miami’s most glamorous hotel. Evans is forced to make an ill-fated deal with Miami mob boss Ben Diamond (Danny Huston) to ensure the success of his glitzy establishment.

Along with Morales – who will play Carlos Ruiz, a former rebel who once fought beside Fidel Castro but now works to free Cuba from the man he once considered a brother – Mitch Glazer’s drama will see another newcomer (James Caan) and the promise of more blood spilled.

The show’s other Latino stars include Andy Garcia‘s daughter Dominik Garcia-Lorido and Yul Vazquez.

Blanco Named 2013 Presidential Inauguration Poet

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Richard Blanco is about to have a presidential experience…

The 44-year-old Cuban American writer has landed the role of a lifetime, 2013 presidential inauguration poet.

Blanco, the 44-year-old son of Cuban exiles, will join the ranks of legends like Maya Angelou and Robert Frost.

“I’m beside myself, bestowed with this great honor, brimming over with excitement, awe, and gratitude,” Blanco said in a statement released by the inaugural committee.

“In many ways, this is the very stuff of the American Dream, which underlies so much of my work and my life’s story —America’s story, really. I am thrilled by the thought of coming together during this great occasion to celebrate our country and its people through the power of poetry.”

Blanco‘s selection as the poet of President Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony marks several firsts. He’s the first Hispanic, gay and the youngest person to be chosen as the inaugural poet.

Blanco’s selection also comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that Vice President Joseph Biden had chosen Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina to serve on the high court, to swear him in at the inauguration.

Sotomayor is the first Hispanic to swear in a president or vice president.

“I’m honored that Richard Blanco will join me and Vice President Biden at our second Inaugural,” Obama said, according to the committee statement.

“His contributions to the fields of poetry and the arts have already paved a path forward for future generations of writers. Richard’s writing will be wonderfully fitting for an Inaugural that will celebrate the strength of the American people and our nation’s great diversity,” Obama added.

Blanco’s works explore his family’s exile from their native country and “the intersection of his cultural identities as a Cuban-American gay man,” the inaugural planners said.

Blanco was born in Spain to a mother who worked as a bank teller and a father who was a bookkeeper.

The New York Times said in a story about the poet that he was named after Richard Nixon, admired by Blanco’s father because of the Republican president’s strong opposition to Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Blanco moved to New York City with his parents when he was an infant, and then moved to Miami, where he was raised and educated. He worked as a consultant engineer while he pursued his poetry, and in 1999 joined the creative writing faculty at Central Connecticut State University until 2001. He later taught in various places, including American and Georgetown universities.

The inaugural committee noted that “Blanco’s career as an English-language Latino poet gained momentum when his first collection, City of a Hundred Fires, won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize from the University of Pittsburgh.”

His second book of poetry, Directions to The Beach of the Dead, won the PEN American Center Beyond.

Banderas to Play Fidel Castro?

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Tom Castaneda

Antonio Banderas’ next role may transform him into one of the world’s most infamous former dictators…

The 51-year-old Spanish actor is in talks with producers to play Fidel Castro in Castro’s Daughter, a film about the life story of Alina Fernández, the love child between the Cuban dictator and Cuban socialite Naty Revuelta.

Fernández tells Screen Daily that she’s excited about the possibility of having the Puss in Boots star sign on.

“I have been a huge fan of Antonio for years,” said the author. “[I] hope to see him play my father.”

Férnandez, who fled Cuba in 1993 and strongly disagrees with Castro’s regime, said she loves Banderas’ “phenomenal charisma.”

“He has the nerve to play the role perfectly,” she says.

The film—based on Fernández’s book, “Castro’s Daughter, An Exile’s Memoir of Cuba”—will shine a light on the father-daughter dynamic between Castro and Fernández.

“While the book is an amazing account of Alina’s life, we decided to take it to the next step,” Mankind Entertainment Producer John Torres told FOX News Latino.

“[We’ll] focus more on the more universal parts of the story that would appeal to audiences worldwide, which is her relationship with her father, and her coming of age.

Mankind Entertainment purchased the rights to the book and looks forward to showing “the former communist leader, and his rebel-spirited daughter,” according to Torres.

Castro’s Daughter—co-written by Bobby Moresco, known for his award winning screenplay for Crash—will be directed by Michael Radford.

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