Salma Hayek to Present at This Year’s Oscars

Salma Hayekwill be taking the Oscarsstage…

The 53-year-old Mexican actress and producer has been added to the list of presenters for the 92nd annual Academy Awards telecast on Sunday.

Salma Hayek

In addition to Hayek, who earned an Oscar nod for her portrayal of iconic Mexican painter Frida Kahlo in the 2002 film Frida, the new additions include Utkarsh AmbudkarBrie LarsonSpike LeeRay Romano, and Rebel Wilson

Previously announced presenters include James CordenPenélope CruzBeanie FeldsteinZack GottsagenDiane KeatonShia LaBeouf, George MacKaySteve MartinKeanu Reeves, Maya Rudolph, Zazie BeetzTimothée ChalametWill FerrellGal GadotMindy KalingJulia Louis-Dreyfus, Lin-Manuel MirandaAnthony RamosMark RuffaloKelly Marie Tran, Kristen Wiig and Sigourney Weaver.

The 92nd annual Academy Awards will be broadcast live on ABC on February 9 from the Dolby Theatre

Penelope Cruz to Present at This Year’s Oscars

Penelope Cruzhas a date with Oscar

The 45-year-old Spanish actress and Oscar winner is set to present at the 92nd annual Academy Awardson ABC

Penelope Cruz

Cruz, a three-time nominee who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in Woody Allen‘s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, joins a roster of new additions to the presenters roster that includes James CordenBeanie FeldsteinZack GottsagenDiane KeatonShia LaBeouf, George MacKaySteve MartinKeanu Reeves, Maya Rudolph and Sigourney Weaver.

Previously announced presenters include Zazie BeetzTimothée ChalametWill FerrellGal GadotMindy KalingJulia Louis-DreyfusLin-Manuel MirandaAnthony RamosMark RuffaloKelly Marie Tranand Kristen Wiig.

The Oscars will be televised live on February 9 from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

Eréndira Ibarra to Star Opposite Keanu Reeves in “The Matrix 4”

Eréndira Ibarra is enterting the matrix…

The 34-year-old Mexican actress will be reuniting with Sense8 co-creator Lana Wachowski in the Warner Bros./Village Roadshow sequel The Matrix 4, which is expected to begin filming this year.

Eréndira Ibarra

Ibarra will be joining franchise returnees Keanu Reeves (Neo), Carrie-Anne Moss(Trinity), and Jada Pinkett Smith(Niobe) as well as newcomers Jessica HenwickNeil Patrick HarrisToby Onwumere, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who is rumored to be playing young Morpheus. Henwick is buzzed to play a female Neo-like character.

Wachowski will direct and co-write the screenplay with Aleksandar Hemon and David Mitchell. Wachowski is producing with Grant Hill, who executive produced Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions. The Matrixtrilogy has grossed more than $1.6 billion at the worldwide box office.

Ibarra joined the first and second seasons of Netflix’s Sense8 in the role of Daniela Velázquez. 

She also starred in the Kate del Castillo Netflix series Ingobernable and the Amazon Prime series El CandidatoShe studied at the artistic studio in Casa Azul.

John Ortiz to Star in Transformers Spinoff “Bumblebee”

John Ortiz is transforming his resume…

The 49-year-old Puerto Rican actor is set to star opposite Hailee Steinfeld and Jon Cena in Paramount Pictures’ Bumblebee, the first spinoff of the Transformers franchise.

John Ortiz

It’s set in 1987, where Bumblebee, who is refuged in a junkyard, is discovered and revived by Charlie (Steinfeld) who, on the cusp of turning 18, is trying to find her place in the world.

The blockbuster film, which will open in theaters on December 21, 2018, has Travis Knight directing from a script by Christina Hodson.

Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg are producing with Hasbro’s Brian Goldner and Stephen Davis.

Ortiz’s upcoming film slate includes Paramount’s God Particle, produced by JJ Abrams and starring David OyelowoReplicas opposite Keanu Reeves, and Nostalgia with Jon Hamm.

Netflix Acquires Global Streaming Rights to Ramirez’s Thriller “Madre”

Life is but a stream for Daniela Ramírez

Netflix has acquired global streaming rights to Madre, Aaron Burns’ psychological thriller starring the 30-year-old Chilean actress.

Daniela Ramirez

Madre, which made its premiere at SXSW, marks Burns’ sophomore turn as feature director.

Madre stars Ramírez as a four-months-pregnant mother of a severely autistic boy (Matías Bassi). After a chance encounter with a gifted Filipino caretaker (Aida Jabolin), the young mother begins to suspect that the new nanny is using the language barrier to turn the boy against her. And then things get sinister.

Burns, who appeared in Roth’s pics The Green Inferno and Keanu Reeves-starrer Knock, Knock, directs Madre from his own original screenplay.

His comedy Blacktino was released in 2011, and before that he worked on visual effects for Grindhouse and Machete, among other credits.

Netflix will begin streaming Madre exclusively by the end of 2017.

Ramirez’s previous credits include La Poseída and Los Archivos del Cardenal.

Leguizamo Returning to Star Opposite Keanu Reeves in “John Wick 2”

John Leguizamo is back to his Wick-ed ways…

The 51-year-old Colombian actor and comedian is set to return for the sequel to the sleeper hitman-themed hit John Wick, starring Keanu Reeves.

John Leguizamo

Filming has just begun in New York and will head to Rome in the New Year. As with the original, John Wick 2 will be directed by Chad Stahelski.

The original film centered on an ex-hitman (Reeves) who is brought out of retirement as he seeks revenge on a group of gangsters who took everything from him. Plot details are being kept under wraps for the sequel.

In addition to Leguizamo, who starred as Aurelio in the original, the sequel will see the return of Bridget Moynahan, Ian McShane, Thomas Sadoski and Lance Reddick.

Newcomers to the film include Ruby Rose, Riccardo Scamarcio, Peter Stormare and Common.

Derek Kolstad (John Wick) wrote the screenplay.

The film will be released through Lionsgate’s Summit Entertainment.

The original grossed $130.9 million worldwide last fall.

Luna to Star in the Dystopian Love Story “The Bad Batch”

Diego Luna is part of a bad, bad batch

The 35-year-old Mexican actor has joined the ensemble cast of the dystopian love story The Bad Batch.

Diego Luna

Luna has been cast opposite Suki Waterhouse, Keanu Reeves and Jim Carrey in the Ana Lily Amirpour-directed film from Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures and VICE.

Jimmy, Waterhouse will play the charter of Arlen, Reeves will play The Dream, and Carrey The Hermit.

Production is set to start in L.A. on the Texas wasteland cannibal tale next month. Luna will play

Winner of the Gotham Award for Breakthrough Director for her debut, the Iranian vampire feature A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, Amirpour is also writing The Bad Batch.

de Armas to Star Opposite Jonah Hill in “Arms and The Dudes”

Ana de Armas is up in arms

The 26-year-old Cuban actress has landed a starring role opposite Miles Teller and Jonah Hill in Warner Bros.’ Arms and The Dudes.

Ana de Armas

The Todd Phillips film, which heads into production this month, revolves around two buddies who join forces as young adults to become successful international arms dealers until they find themselves well beyond their depth.

The film is based on a 2011 Rolling Stone article by Guy Lawson.

de Armas was at the Sundance Film Festival last month with her latest movie, Eli Roth’s Knock Knock, in which she stars opposite Keanu Reeves.

Her credits include the upcoming Roberto Duran biopic Hands of Stone and she’s shooting Gee Malik Linton’s mystery-thriller Daughter of God right now in New York City.

Almodovar Receives France’s Prix Lumiere for His Lifetime Filmmaking Achievements

Pedro Almodóvar is beloved in France… And he has the prize to prove it!

The 65-year-old Spanish filmmaker has received the country’s Prix Lumiere for his lifetime filmmaking career.

Pedro Almodovar

Almodóvar was overcome by emotion during the tribute ceremony over the weekend, which was attended by members of the French film industry, as well as some of the actresses closest to him like Marisa Paredes, Rossy de Palma and Elena Anaya.

The ceremony ended with the 3,000 attendees packed into the Lyon Congress Center showing their devotion to the director, and at one point singing and dancing to “Resistire” by the Duo Dinamico.

Almodóvar closed the night’s moving festivities, which went on for more than two and a half hours, with a speech that, he said, he had prepared as if it were for a Nobel Prize and which he dedicated entirely to his mother.

Almodóvar, known for such films as Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, All About My Mother and Talk to Her, said that his use of “explosive and saturated” colors is his act of revenge for the more than 30 years his mother spent in the “imposed” black of mourning.

Among the film icons who came to honor him were Isabella Rossellini, Paolo Sorrentino, Berenice Bejo and Keanu Reeves.

French actress Juliette Binoche presented him with the prize while shouting “Merci!” which recalled Penelope Cruz’s famous cry of “Peeeedro!” when she announced that the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film went to All About My Mother in 2000.

The prize offered by the Lumiere Institute has paid tribute every year since 2009 to an international film personality. Previous recipients include Clint Eastwood, Milos Forman, Gerard Depardieu, Ken Loach and Quentin Tarantino.

The next day, on Saturday, Almodovar announced that he has begun pre-production for his next film and that on Monday he will begin finding locations for the shoot, but specified it will take place “in various points around Spain’s geography, as well as in Madrid.”

“About the rest, the actors and other details, we’ll have time to talk about that in the coming months,” Almodovar said, after confessing that his visit to the Lumiere Festival has been a “delightful pause” in his new moviemaking project.

Varela to Star in the Upcoming “Point Break” Remake

Matias Varela is getting his big Hollywood break

The 33-year-old Spanish actor, who was born and raised in Sweden, has signed on to appear in Alcon Entertainment’s Point Break remake.

Matias Varela

The film is an update of the Kathryn Bigelow-helmed 1991 original to center on an ex-extreme sports athlete turned FBI trainee assigned to go undercover to investigate a string of robberies by a band of fellow adrenaline junkies.

The original starred Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Lori Petty and Gary Busey.

Varela will portray Grommet, an extreme sports athlete and member of Bodhi’s gang of outlaws.

In his native Sweden, Varela earned a Swedish Oscar nod for his turn in the final Snabba Cash film, Livet Deluxe.

His other credits include starring in several episodes of Showtime‘s The Borgias, as Ferdinand II of Naples.