Eiza González Starring in Guy Ritchie’s “Fountain of Youth” from Apple & Skydance

Posted on January 19, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Eiza González is searching for the fountain of youth…

The 33-year-old Mexican actress and singer will star opposite John Krasinski and Natalie Portman in Apple‘s Fountain of Youth.

The feature film, based on an original idea that will be directed by Guy Ritchie, hails from Skydance Media. The film will be produced for Apple by Skydance, Vinson Films and Project X Entertainment.

Written by James Vanderbilt, the film follows estranged siblings (Krasinski and Portman) who partner on a global heist to find the mythological Fountain of Youth. They must use their knowledge of history to follow clues on an epic adventure that will change their lives — and possibly lead to immortality.

Hailing from a first-look partnership between Apple and Skydance, Fountain of Youth has been a high priority for Skydance after getting a script from Vanderbilt that Deadline sources said “blew execs away,” but the studio needed the right package of talent before it moved forward with the film. Ritchie, who has been as busy as any director in town, had been eyeing the project since the spring, with Krasinski also circling it around the same time, but the dual strikes forced things to be put on pause.

The project reunites González with director Ritchie for a third time after recently wrapping production on their most recent collaboration on a new, untitled action film in which González stars alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Henry Cavill. González will also star opposite Cavill in Ritchie’s upcoming The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which will be released in theaters on April 19th.

González will next lead David Benioff and D.B Weiss’ series, 3 Body Problem for Netflix. The series debuts on the streaming platform on March 21st. She will also soon be starring in the boxing limited series, La Maquina, opposite Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna. The show will debut as Hulu’s first Spanish language series. Also upcoming, González will star in the mystery sci-fi movie ASH directed by the musician Flying Lotus (aka Steven Ellison) opposite Aaron Paul.

Jacob Elordi’s “Priscilla” to Have North American Premiere at This Year’s New York Film Festival

Posted on July 20, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Jacob Elordi is bringing his blue suede shoes to the Big Apple…

Film at Lincoln Center has set Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, starring the 26-year-old half-Spanish Australian actor as Elvis Presley, as the Centerpiece selection for the 61st New York Film Festival.

The A24 film starring Cailee Spaeny as Elvis’ wife, Priscilla Beaulieu, will make its North American premiere at Alice Tully Hall on October 6.

The festival runs from September 29 to October 15, opening with Todd Haynes’ May December starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore.

Never has there been a more obsessed-over icon than Elvis Presley, yet no one knew him more tenderly than Priscilla, whose story as Elvis’s romantic partner and only wife has rarely been told from her perspective.

Coppola, who often depicts women living complicated lives behind closed doors, follows Priscilla’s love affair with Elvis, played by Elordi, from her early years as a teenage army brat in West Germany to her surreal arrival at Graceland.

“I am honored to be back at the New York Film Festival with my new film and to be telling Priscilla Presley’s story, the unseen side of a great American myth,” said Coppola. Her screenplay was based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me.

Coppola’s On the Rocks (2020) and Marie Antoinette (2006) were NYFF selections.

“Priscilla is a culminating triumph for Sofia Coppola, a filmmaker with a singular gift for illuminating the interior lives of her characters,” said Dennis Lim, the festival’s Artistic Director. “It’s a showcase for a pair of star-making performances and a work of tremendous empathy and emotional nuance. We are looking forward to welcoming Sofia back to the festival with one of her very best films.”

Coppola was the second woman to win Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival for The Beguiled (2017). Her other films include directorial debut The Virgin Suicides (1999), Lost in Translation (2003 Oscar, Best Original Screenplay), Somewhere (2010 Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival), The Bling Ring (2013) and A Very Murray Christmas (2015).

She served as producer on Fairyland (2023). She also directed a production of La Traviata at the Rome Opera House alongside Valentino and production designer Nathan Crowley.

Priscilla’s cinematography was handled by Philippe Le Sourd, with original music by Phoenix.

Pablo Larraín to Direct Angelina Jolie in Biopic About Opera Legend Maria Callas

Posted on October 21, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Pablo Larraín has lined up his next biopic…

The 46-year-old Chilean filmmaker will direct Maria, a biopic about the life of American-born Greek soprano Maria Callas as his next feature, and he’s locked in Academy Award-winner Angelina Jolie in the starring role.

Based on true accounts, the film will tell the tumultuous, beautiful and tragic story of the world’s greatest opera singer, relived and reimagined during her final days in 1970s Paris.

The film was written by Oscar-nominee Steven Knight, who wrote Larraín’s Princess Diana biopic Spencer. The filmmaker’s brother and creative partner Juan de Dios Larraín will produce for Fabula Pictures, alongside Lorenzo Mieli for The Apartment Pictures, a Fremantle Company, and Jonas Dornbach for Komlizen Film.

“Having the chance to combine my two most deep and personal passions, cinema and opera, has been a long-awaited dream,” said Larraín. “To do this with Angelina, a supremely brave and curious artist, is a fascinating opportunity. A true gift.”

“I take very seriously the responsibility to Maria’s life and legacy. I will give all I can to meet the challenge,” added Jolie. “Pablo Larraín is a director I have long admired. To be allowed the chance to tell more of Maria’s story with him, and with a script by Steven Knight, is a dream.”

Larraín is best known for features including Spencer, starring Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana, and Jackie, which had Natalie Portman portraying Jackie Kennedy.

He also directed and executive produced the Apple series Liseys’ Story, based on the Stephen King novel. Other notable directorial credits include Ema, Neruda, The Club and No.

Pablo Larraín to Direct Kirsten Stewart in Princess Diana Film “Spencer”

Posted on June 18, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Pablo Larraín is taking on the portray of another legend…

The 43-year-old Oscar-nominated Chilean filmmaker will direct Kristen Stewart in the drama Spencer about Princess Diana.

The Steven Knight-scripted film covers a critical weekend in the early ‘90s, when Diana decided her marriage to Prince Charles wasn’t working, and that she needed to veer from a path that put her in line to one day be queen. The drama takes place over three days, in one of her final Christmas holidays in the House of Windsor in their Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England.

“I’ve always been intrigued and fascinated by the Royal Family and how things are in that culture, which we don’t have where I come from,” Larraín said. “Diana is such a powerful icon, where millions and millions of people, not just women, but many people around the world felt empathy toward her in her life. We decided to get into a story about identity, and around how a woman decides somehow, not to be the queen. She’s a woman who, in the journey of the movie, decides and realizes that she wants to be the woman she was before she met Charles.

The film won’t deal with Diana’s tragic death after she left that palace life, but will examine the fraying of the relationship with her husband, and her ferocious love for her sons Prince William and Prince Harry.

“It’s about finding herself, about understanding that possibly the most important thing for her is to be well, and to be with herself and by herself,” Larraín explained. “That’s why the movie is called Spencer, which is the family name she had before she met Charles. It’s very contained, set over a few days in Sandringham. They spent Christmas there for many years and that’s where we set the movie in the early ‘90s, around 1992, we’re not specific. It’s Christmas Eve, Christmas and Boxing Day, three days, very contained. We get to understand what it is she wants and what she will do.”

“How and why do you decide to do that? It’s a great universal story that can reach millions and millions of people, and that’s what we want to do. We want to make a movie that goes wide, connects with a worldwide audience that is interested in such a fascinating life,” he adds.

Production is expected to begin in early 2021 on the film, which Larraín will also produce.

Larraín previously directed Natalie Portman in Jackie. The film follows Jackie Kennedy in the days when she was First Lady in the White House and her life immediately following the assassination of her husband, U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1963. The film earned Portman an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Larraín’s other credits include Neruda, about poet Pablo Neruda, as well as the Spanish-language film No, Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, and The Club.

America Ferrera Signs Open Letter Urging Local Governments to Decrease Police Budgets

Posted on June 3, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

America Ferrera is calling for decreased police funding…

The 36-year-old Honduran American actress and activist has joined the likes of John Legend, Common, the Weeknd, Lizzo, Jane Fonda, and others to signed a new open letter urging local governments to decrease police budgets in favor of spending more on health care, education, and other community programs.

Others to sign the letter include Megan Rapinoe, Yada Shahidi, and Anthony Romero, the executive director of the ACLU.

The letter was released by activist Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter and a founding member of the Movement 4 Black Lives, a coalition of more than 100 black-rights organizations.

The letter arrived in conjunction with #BlackOutTuesday and #TheShowMustBePaused, a grassroots campaign within the music industryto pause work today, June 2nd, and “reconnect with our community.”

Talib Kweli, Natalie Portman, Brie Larson and Taraji P. Henson also signed the letter.

The open letter ties the deaths of unarmed black people like George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and others to the disproportionately devastating effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on black communities.

The COVID-19 deaths and the deaths caused by police terror are connected and consequential to each other,” it states. “The United States does not have a national healthcare system. Instead, we have the largest military budget in the world, and some of the most well-funded and militarized police departments in the world, too. Policing and militarization overwhelmingly dominate the bulk of national and local budgets. In fact, police and military funding has increased every single year since 1973, and at the same time, funding for public health decreased every year, crystallized most recently when the Trump administration eliminated the U.S. Pandemic Response Team in 2018, citing ‘costs.To know more about health check this site.

Noting, for instance, that state and local government spending on police and corrections jumped from $60 billion to $194 billion between 1977 and 2017, the letter lays out an array of different ways that money could be used. “It could go towards building healthy communities, to the health of our elders and children, to neighborhood infrastructure, to education, to childcare, to support a vibrant Black future. The possibilities are endless.”

At the end, the letter lays out its three demands and asks all signees to encourage their local officials to take the pledge as well: “Vote no on all increases to police budgets. Vote yes to decrease police spending and budgets. Vote yes to increase spending on Health care, Education, and Community programs that keep us safe.”

Larrain Attached to Direct Annapurna Pictures’ “The True American”

Posted on April 5, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Things could be ringing True for Pablo Larraín…

The 40-year-old Chilean filmmaker, the Oscar-nominated director behind such titles as Jackie and Neruda, is attached to direct Tom Hardy in Annapurna Pictures’ The True American.

The project is based on Anand Giridharadas’ nonfiction book of the same name, which is set in Texas in the days following 9/11. It follows the story of Rais Bhuiyan, a Muslim immigrant and Bangladesh Air Force veteran who narrowly survived a killing spree that took the lives of two other immigrants. Employed at a Dallas-area convenience store as he established himself in America, Bhuiyan worked to have his attacker, self-styled “Arab-slayer” Mark Stroman, spared from execution.

This is a project that has been kicking around for a few years now, with Kathryn Bigelow attached to direct at one point, but now it’s moving forward with Bigelow taking a producer role on the film.

Larraín is fast becoming one of the most sought after international directors after his recent effort Jackie, starring Natalie Portman as the former First Lady in the days following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, was nominated for three Oscars.

His Spanish-language film Neruda, a twist on the biopic genre about the eponymous Nobel Prize-winning poet, was made in Chile and debuted at the Cannes Film Festival while his 2012 political satire No was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas was published in 2014 by W.W. Norton & Company.

Larrain’s “Jackie” Joins the Film Slate at This Year’s AFI Fest

Posted on October 24, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Pablo Larraín’s latest film will get the AFI Fest treatment…

The 40-year-old Chilean director’s latest film Jackie has joined the American Film Institute’s slate of AFI Centerpiece Galas at this year’s AFI Fest.

From Fox Searchlight and starring Oscar winner Natalie Portman, the film will screen on Monday, November 14, at the TCL Chinese Theatre.

Jackie, which debuted at the Venice Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival, is an intimate portrait of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, which takes us into the iconic First Lady’s world during the difficult days immediately following her husband’s assassination.

Noah Oppenheim penned the screenplay.

In addition to Portman, the film stars Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup and Oscar nominee John Hurt.

Jackie joins previously announced Mike Mills-directed 20th Century Women; Elle directed by Paul Verhoeven; and Damien Chazelle-helmed La La Land starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.

The AFI Fest runs from November 10-17.

Isaac In Talks to Star in the Post-Apocalyptic Horror Adventure “Annihilation”

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Oscar Isaac is facing annihilation…

The 37-year-old Guatemalan and Cuban American actor is in talks to reteam with Alex Garland, his director for the acclaimed sci-fi movie Ex Machina, for Annihilation, a post-apocalyptic horror adventure feature for Paramount Pictures.

Isaac, who was a standout as X-wing pilot Poe Dameron in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens, would star opposite Natalie Portman and Gina Rodriguez in the film, which is an adaptation of a book by Jeff VanderMeer.

The story follows a biologist, to be played by Portman, as she embarks on a four-person expedition into Area X, a territory cut off from civilization. While there, she must deal with a mysterious contamination, disappearing colleagues, a deadly animal and a being known as the Crawler, all while searching for clues regarding her husband’s disappearance.

Isaac will play Portman’s husband, who may not have disappeared after all.

Isaac starred with Alicia Vikander and Domhnall Gleeson in Ex Machina, in which he played the Steve Jobs-like owner of a search engine tech company creating artificial intelligence.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, meanwhile, blasted box office records and currently has grossed over $933 million domestically, $2 billion worldwide

Rodriguez Signs with 42West

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Gina Rodriguez is heading (42) West…

The 31-year-old Puerto Rican actress and Jane the Virgin star has signed with 42West for publicity.

42West is one of the leading full-service public-relations firms in the entertainment industry.

Rodriguez, who may co-star opposite Natalie Portman in the sci-fi film Annihilation, won her first Golden Globe in January for her starring role the CW’s Jane the Virgin.

Rodriguez In Talks to Star Opposite Natalie Portman in the Sci-Fi Film “Annihilation”

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Gina Rodriguez is ready to annihilate Hollywood…

The 31-year-old Puerto Rican Golden Globe-winning actress is in talks to star opposite Natalie Portman in the sci-fi film Annihilation.

The post-apocalyptic horror adventure film will be helmed by Ex Machina‘s Alex Garland.

The feature is an adaptation of a book by Jeff Vander Meer.

Garland wrote the script, adapted from Vander Meer’s book, which hit stores in February 2014 and is the first in a trilogy.

Rodriguez stars on the CW‘s Jane the Virgin.

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