Cheech Marin to Star in the Bobby Farrelly-Directed Film “Champions”

Cheech Marin is a champion

The 75-year-old Mexican American actor will lead Champions, a recently-wrapped film that Bobby Farrelly directed for Focus Features and Gold Circle Entertainment.

Cheech MarinMarin stars alongside Woody Harrelson, Kaitlin Olson and Matt Cook.

Champions is based on the Goya Award winning Spanish film Campeones, which Universal Pictures International released in 2018.

It centers on a stubborn and hotheaded minor league basketball coach who is forced to coach a Special Olympics team when he is sentenced to community service.

Actors with intellectual disabilities rounding out the cast to ensure authenticity in the storytelling include Madison Tevlin, Joshua Felder, Kevin Iannucci, Ashton Gunning, Matthew Von Der Ahe, Tom Sinclair, James Day Keith, Alex Hintz, Casey Metcalfe, Bradley Edens and Champ Pederson.

Mark Rizzo penned the script.

Focus Features will distribute the film domestically, with Universal Pictures handling its international release.

Marin is an actor and comedian who broke out in the ’70s, alongside Tommy Chong, as one half of the comedy duo Cheech & Chong. He’s appeared in such films as MachetePlanet TerrorGrindhouseTin CupFrom Dusk Till Dawn, DesperadoGhostbusters IIBorn in East L.A.After Hours and Up in Smoke, along with series including Elena of AvalorLodge 49 and Jane the Virgin.

Daniella Pineda to Star Opposite Gerard Butler in Lionsgate’s Action Thriller “The Plane”

Daniella Pineda is flying high

The 34-year-old Mexican American actress has been cast opposite Gerard Butler in the Lionsgate action thriller The Plane.

Daniella Pineda

The Plane follows commercial pilot Brodie Torrance (Butler) who, after a heroic job of successfully landing his storm-damaged aircraft in hostile territory, finds himself threated by militant pirates who are planning to take the plane and its passengers hostage. As the world’s authorities and media search for the disappeared aircraft, Brodie must rise to the occasion and keep his passengers safe long enough for help to arrive.

Pineda will play Bonnie, the professional and formidable head flight attendant in the film, which also stars Mike Colter and Kelly Gale.

Cameras are set to roll in Puerto Rico later this month.

The Plane will be directed by Jean-François Richet and written by Charles Cumming, JP Davis and Matt Cook, based on the book by Charles Cumming.

Lionsgate will release the film in North America, Latin America, the United Kingdom, and India.

Pineda will star in the Netflix series Cowboy Bebop as Faye Valentine. And she’s set to reprise her role in the next Jurassic World film, Jurassic World: Dominion, which comes out on June 10, 2022.

She also starred on the television series The Detour and the Samuel Goldwyn feature Modern Persuasion.

Ana De Armas to Star in the Action-Thriller “Three Seconds”

It’s a matter of seconds for Ana De Armas

The 29-year-old Cuban actress has landed a role in Andrea Di Stefano’s Three Seconds, based on the best-selling Swedish novel by Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström.

Ana De Armas

She joins a cast that includes Joel Kinnaman, Rosamund Pike, Common and Clive Owen.

The action-thriller was written by Matt Cook, with revisions by Rowan Joffé and current revisions by DiStefano.

The story follows reformed criminal and former Special Ops soldier Pete Hoffman who, in order to free himself from jail and return to his wife and daughter, has been working undercover for crooked FBI handlers to infiltrate the Polish mob’s drug trade in New York. In a final step toward freedom, Hoffman must return to the one place he’s fought so hard to leave: Bale Hill Prison, where his mission becomes a race against time when a drug deal goes wrong and threatens his identity as a mole.

De Armas will play Hoffman’s wife, Sofia, a small-businesswoman who owns a grocery store. She most recently was seen in Hands of Stone with Edgar Ramirez and Robert De Niro, and War Dogs with Jonah Hill and Miles Teller.

She’ll next appear in Blade Runner 2049 with Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, which will bow in the U.S. on October 6 via Warner Bros.

Collins, Jr. to Star in John Hillcoat’s Cop Drama “Triple Nine”

Clifton Collins, Jr. is on Cloud Nine, Nine, Nine

The 43-year-old Mexican and Spanish American actor has joined the cast of John Hillcoat’s cop drama Triple Nine.

Clifton Collins Jr.

Collins, Jr., last seen on the big screen in Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim, joins Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Kate Winslet in the Matt Cook-scripted drama about a crew of dirty cops who are blackmailed by the Russian mob to execute a virtually impossible heist. The only way to pull it off is to manufacture a 999, police code for “officer down”. Their plan is turned upside down when the unsuspecting rookie they set up to die foils the attack. That triggers double-crosses, greed and revenge.

Triple Nine will begin shooting next month.