Ochoa to Star in the Indie Film “The Samuel Project”

Ryan Ochoa is going indie

The 20-year-old Latino actor has been cast in indie film The Samuel Project, alongside Hal Linden, Ken Davitian, Mateo Arias, Michael B. Silver, and Philippe Bowgen.

The feature centers on a teen (Ochoa) who gets to know his grandfather Samuel (Linden) when he makes him the subject of an animated art project for school. With dreams of becoming a professional artist, the young man discovers that his grandpa, a Jewish dry cleaner, was heroically saved from Nazi capture in Germany by a young woman when he was a boy.

Marc Fusco is directing the film from a script he co-wrote with Chris Neighbors.

Filming is said to begin in San Diego this week.

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Ochoa to Lead the Voice Cast of Disney-Pixar’s “The Good Dinosaur”

Raymond Ochoa has earned a Dino-mite gig…

Disney-Pixar has unveiled the all-new  cast of The Good Dinosaur, with the 13-year-old Latino actor voicing the character of Arlo, an Apatosaurus who is separated from his family when he falls into a raging river and is swept hundreds of miles away.

Raymond Ochoa

He comes across Spot (Jack Bright), a human cave-boy orphan with whom he forms a bond as he attempts to get home.

The new cast also includes Jeffrey Wright as Arlo’s dad, Poppa; Steve Zahn as a pterodactyl named Thunderclap; AJ Buckley as Nash, a T-rex; Anna Paquin as Ramsey the T-rex; Sam Elliott as a tough T-rex named Butch and Marcus Scribner as Arlo’s brother Buck.

The Good Dinosaur

The long-in-the-works animated film will hit theaters Thanksgiving week.

Originally set for release in summer 2014, the film has seen a number of obstacles since its original voice cast was unveiled at Disney’s D23 in August 2013. Raising Hope’s Lucas Neff was set as Arlo, with John Lithgow as Poppa, Frances McDormand as Momma and Bill Hader, Judy Greer and Neil Patrick Harris as Arlo’s siblings.

But just five weeks later, Disney announced that it had pushed Good Dinosaur back a year and a half as rookie feature director Pete Sohn stepped in for the departed Bob Peterson.

Ochoa, the younger brother of actor Ryan Ochoa, is best known for his roles in 10 Items or Less, Merry Christmas and Drake and Josh.