Dan Hernandez to Co-Pen Film Featuring Disney’s Iconic Dragon Figment

It’s no figment of Dan Hernandez’s imagination…

The 38-year-old Latino film and television writer and producer will co-write Disney’s upcoming film featuring its iconic small purple dragon Figment alongside Benji Samit.

Dan HernandezFigment serves as the mascot of Epcot’s Imagination Pavilion in Orlando.

The feature hails from Seth Rogen’s Point Grey.

Figment was created by Walt Disney Imagineers Tony Baxter and Steve Kirk, among other collaborators, in 1983, the same year it made its debut in the Epcot ride Journey Into Imagination. Figment is the embodiment of the imagining process— a figment of your imagination.

Although one of Disney’s more obscure characters, Figment has a devoted fanbase that has ensured his role at the park is never diminished. Various attempts to remove the ride or decrease his presence have been met with loud protests.

Today, he is the star of the latest version of the ride Journey Into Imagination with Figment.

The feature will not be Figment’s first time on the big screen, however.

He made cameo appearances in 2015’s Inside Out and 2019’s Toy Story 4.

The writing team of Hernandez and Samit penned 2019’s Pokémon Detective Pikachu and 2021’s The Addams Family 2 and developed the upcoming Hulu animated series Koala Man, premiering in 2023.

Other notable credits include Apple’s Central ParkThe Tick for Amazon and the One Day at a Time reboot.

Netflix’s “The Boys in the Band,” Starring Robin de Jesus, Added to Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film Festival Lineup with Special Cast Conversation

Robin de Jesus is going Inside Out

The 30th annual Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film Festival has announced its lineup for this year’s virtual edition, with the 36-year-old Puerto Rican actor/singer’s highly anticipated The Boys in the Band part of the roster.

Robin de Jesus, The Boys in the Band

de Jesus and his The Boys in the Band cast members will take part in an exclusive conversation about the film.

Based on the Tony Award-winning play, the new film also stars Zachary Quinto, Andrew Rannells, Matt Bomer, Jim Parsons. It’s directed by Joe Mantello and produced by Ryan Murphy.

The Boys in the Band debuts on September 30 and will be available for audiences to stream ahead of the conversation.

Meanwhile, some of the Latinx directed and/or Latino-related films that form part of the lineup include Adam Golub’s documentary Your Mother’s Comfort (Brazil), Gil Baroni’s narrative film Alice Junior (Brazil), Daniel Nolasco’s narrative film Dry Wind (Brazil), Clarisa Navas’ narrative film One In a Thousand (Argentina/Germany), Omar Zúñiga Hidalgo’s narrative film The Strong Ones (Chile) and StormMiguel Florez’s documentary The Whistle (USA).

The lineup for the 10-day festival will include drive-in and special events, as it showcases 150 films and nine episodic series. The fest was originally set for May, but was pushed to October 1-11 due to the global coronavirus pandemic.

“The queer community is no stranger to extraordinary situations. Who could have predicted a global pandemic would become the entry point to mobilize around new ideas, new connections and collaborations, to ensure we could still deliver the best and safest possible 30th anniversary,” added the festival’s director Andrew Murphy. “Film is really now the safest way to travel, and this year’s lineup provides a unique opportunity to escape into the many complicated queer worlds via the brilliant minds of our filmmakers, icons, and peers.”

Films will be in competition for jury and audience awards and for the first time award winners will be revealed on opening weekend, giving audiences the opportunity to view the winning films throughout the entire festival.

Click here to see the entire lineup.

Jonas Rivera Makes History at the Academy Awards

Jonas Riverahas entered the Oscars history books…

The 48-year-old Mexican American film producer picked up the second Academy Award of his career on Sunday night, making him the first U.S.-born Latino to win multiple Oscars.

Jonas Rivera

Rivera won an Oscar as one of the producers of Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 4, which was named Best Animated Feature.

Rivera had previously won an Oscar for the 2015 film Disney/Pixar’s animated film Inside Out.

“As if my mind couldn’t be more blown about the last five minutes, thank you for that,” Rivera said during a backstage interview, after interviewers informed him that he had made history. “I’m a little bit out of my body right now. It means the world to me. I can’t even really put it into words.”

While Rivera doesn’t speak Spanish fluently, he said he feels connected to his Latino identity and that he tries to bring his culture into his work as he did in Toy Story 4by hiring Jay Hernandezto play Bonnie’s father in the movie. Rivera was particularly close to his Mexican grandfather, to whom he dedicated the animated feature Up

“The only Spanish I learned was when my grandparents would fight,” Rivera said. “You work hard, you put your guts into it … and it does happen.”

Here are the winners at the 92nd annual Academy Awards:


Best Picture Parasite
Actress in a Leading Role Renée Zellweger, Judy
Actor in a Leading Role Joaquin Phoenix, Joker 
Directing Parasite, Bong Joon Ho
Original Song “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again,” Rocketman, Music by Elton John, Lyric by Bernie Taupin
Original Score Joker, Hildur Guðnadóttir
International Feature Parasite, South Korea
Makeup and Hairstyling Bombshell, Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan and Vivian Baker
Visual Effects 1917, Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler and Dominic Tuohy
Film Editing Ford v Ferrari, Michael McCusker and Andrew Buckland
Cinematography 1917, Roger Deakins
Sound Mixing 1917, Mark Taylor and Stuart Wilson
Sound Editing Ford v Ferrari, Donald Sylvester
Actress in a Supporting Role Laura Dern, Marriage Story
Documentary Short Subject Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl), Carol Dysinger and Elena Andreicheva
Documentary Feature American Factory, Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert and Jeff Reichert
Costume Design Little Women, Jacqueline Durran
Production Design Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Production Design: Barbara Ling, Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
Live Action Short Film The Neighbors’ Window, Marshall Curry
Adapted Screenplay Jojo Rabbit, Screenplay by Taika Waititi
Original Screenplay Parasite, Screenplay by Bong Joon Ho, Han Jin Won, Story by Bong Joon Ho
Animated Short Film Hair Love, Matthew A. Cherry and Karen Rupert Toliver
Animated Feature Film Toy Story 4, Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen and Jonas Rivera
Actor in a Supporting Role Brad Pitt, Once upon a Time in Hollywood

New Trailer Released for Ochoa’s Disney-Pixar Film “The Good Dinosaur”

Raymond Ochoa will have you seeing green in his next project…

DineyPixar has released the latest trailer for The Good Dinosaur, which features the 13-year-old Latino actor as part of the voice cast.

The Good Dinosaur

The animated film follows the story of a misfit prehistoric creature who bonds with a human toddler.

The Good Dinosaur takes place in an alternate past in which the event that wiped out all large life forms at the tail end of the Cretaceous period never happened. As a result, dinosaurs survived well into the Pleistocene era. What follows is an epic journey through this world from the perspective of an Apatosaurus named Arlo (Ochoa) and his unlikely cave-boy pal Spot (Jack Bright). As they travel, Arlo learns to confront his fears and become what he’s capable of being.

The film originally was slated for summer 2014, but it weathered a director change and got an entirely new voice cast.

Peter Sohn makes his feature directorial debut here, having helmed Partly Cloudy, the 2009 Pixar short that played in theaters before the studio’s hit feature Up. Riding high on the success of Pixar’s Inside Out, Disney sends The Good Dinosaur into theaters November 25, the day before Thanksgiving.