del Toro to Star in “Sicario” sequel, “Soldado”

Benicio del Toro is ready to soldier on…

The 49-year-old Puerto Rican actor will star in Soldado, the second installment of the drug war thriller that began with 2015’s Sicario.

Benicio del Toro

Hailing from Lionsgate and Black Label Media, the sequel focuses on Alejandro Gillick, the shadowy protagonist played by del Toro, and Josh Brolin’s CIA agent Matt Graver, who in the first film established themselves as hell bent on hunting down cartel kingpins, no matter what.

Soldado, which was scripted by Taylor Sheridan, does not include the FBI agent character played by Emily Blunt in Sicario.

In the film, Gillick and Graver concern themselves with what is being smuggled across the border between Mexico and the U.S. in the tunnels used to move drugs and illegal immigrants. Those tunnels also can be used to bring terrorists into the U.S.

Italian director Stefano Sollima is the front-runner to direct the second installment. Denis Villenueve directed the first film.

del Toro to Star in Cuban Mafia-Themed Film “The Corporation”

Benicio del Toro is joining the Cuban mafia…

The 49-year-old Puerto Rican-American actor will star in The Corporation, which takes place over the decades between the 1950s and 1980s in Miami and New York.

Benicio del Toro

Based on T.J. English’s yet-to-be-published book The Corporation: An Epic Story of the Cuban American Underworld, del Toro will play Jose Miguel Battle Sr., who leads the eponymous and hugely powerful Cuban mafia. Born in Havana, Battle escaped to the U.S. following the rise of Fidel Castro. Alongside his team of fellow Cubans, Battle was trained by the CIA so that he could fight in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.

Despite his name, things didn’t go so well for Battle during the attempted invasion, as he was captured, which led to him being imprisoned inside a Cuban prison. Battle failed to find the light side during his incarceration, and, when he was released, he headed straight back to the U.S. where he set off to build a huge criminal empire alongside the same posse of men that he fought with. His empire revolved around drug trafficking, gambling, and, even murder, and made him one of the most powerful crime bosses in the US until his death in 2007.

The nonfiction book will be published in winter 2017 by William Morrow. It’s being called a Cuban version of The Godfather and American Gangster.

del Toro is coming off a sizzling performance in Sicario, and this is an opportunity to play another badass character.

Paramount Studios and Appian Way have the film rights.

del Toro Comes Aboard as Executive Producer of “Viva”

Life’s a drag for Benicio del Toro

The 48-year-old Puerto Rican actor and Oscar winner has come aboard as executive producer of Vivadirector Paddy Breathnach’s new film having its World Premiere here at the Telluride Film Festival.

Benicio del Toro

An Irish production shot in Cuba en Español, the film is about Jesus, a young man  growing up in Havana who works as a hair and make up artist for drag acts. What he REALLY wants to do is perform on stage himself, a development that leads to major conflicts with his father who has just been released from prison.

Hector Medina stars as Jesus with a supporting cast including Jorge Perugorria and Luis Alberto Garcia. Screenwriter Mark O’ Halloran also is featured in the film.

del Toro was most recently an executive producer of Escobar: Paradise Losta film in which he also starred that had its World Premiere at last year’s Telluride Film Festival.

He has produced other films in which he had roles including Che and The Wolfmanbut his participation in a behind-the-scenes role on Viva appears to be his first in a film he does not appear since Lovesicknesin 2007.

del Toro next appears in Lionsgate’s Sicariowhich debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and will have its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival later this month in advance of its September 18 release.

He’s already getting Oscar buzz for his intensely searing role in the film.

del Toro to Receive Heart of Sarajevo Award at the Sarajevo Film Festival

Benicio del Toro has a little extra heart…

The 48-year-old Puerto Rican actor, an Academy Award and Golden Globe winner, will receive the Heart of Sarajevo Award for his contribution to the art of cinema at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival.

Benicio del Toro

Previous recipients for the award, which was designed by French designer, filmmaker and festival patron Agnes B, include Angelina Jolie, Gael Garcia Bernal and Steve Buscemi.

del Toro will present Fernando Leon de Aranoa’s drama A Perfect Day, in which he has a starring role alongside Tim Robbins and Olga Kurylenko, at the festival’s open-air screening venue, where del Toro will receive the award in front of a 3,000-strong crowd. The film premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

The actor will also hold a master class for the participants of Talents Sarajevo, a networking and training platform for emerging film professionals from South-East Europe and the Southern Caucasus.

del Toro won an Academy Award for supporting actor for his role in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, and an Oscar nomination for his work in Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu’s 21 Grams.

Reteaming with Soderbergh to star in Che, the biography of Che Guevera, del Toro’s performance won him the best actor award at Cannes in 2008.

Del Toro can be seen next starring in Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, alongside Emily Blunt and Josh Brolin, which is scheduled for a September 18 release by Lionsgate in the U.S.

Del Toro to Portray Villain in “Star Wars: Episode VIII”

May the force be with Benicio Del Toro

The 48-year-old Puerto Rican actor has been in talks with Lucasfilm and has now been offered a role in Star Wars: Episode VIII as a new villain, according to Deadline.

Benicio del Toro

No details were released regarding the nature of the role, but other name actors are said to have also been considered.

Could this suggest possible spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens? That film has three confirmed villains: Domhnall Gleeson’s General Hux, Gwendolyn Christie’s Captain Phasma, and Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren. That’s a fairly packed slate of heavyweights. The Del Toro casting news makes one wonder if one of that trio doesn’t make it to the end of the movie.

Directed by Looper and Brick helmer Rian Johnson, the still-untitled eighth installment of the new Star Wars trilogy is set for release May 26, 2017.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theaters December 18.

Del Toro’s next film is Sicario for Lionsgate.

del Toro’s Drug-Runner Drama “Sicario” Set for Limited Release in September

Benicio Del Toro is returning to the big screen this fall…

Lionsgate Films has set a September 18 limited-release date for Sicario, the drug-runner drama starring the 48-year-old Academy Award-winning Puerto Rican actor.

Benicio del Toro

From director Denis Villenueve, the film stars Emily Blunt as an idealistic FBI agent exposed to the brutal world of international drug trafficking by members of a government task force (del Toro and Josh Brolin) who have enlisted her in their plan to take out a Mexican cartel boss.

The film co-stars Jon Bernthal.

Taylor Sheridan wrote Sicario, which will have its wide release one week later, on September 25.

del Toro to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at San Sebastian International Film Festival

Benicio del Toro is about to add another award to his collection…

The 48-year-old Puerto Rican actor and film producer and Oscar-winner will receive the Donostia Award for Lifetime Achievement at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Benicio del Toro III

del Toro’s latest film Escobar: Paradise Lostwill close the Pearls Selection at the festival, which runs September 19-27.

Escobar, written by Andrea di Stefano, tells the story of young surfer Nick who thinks he has landed in paradise when he falls in love with a Colombian girl on a visit to see his brother who is living in the South American country only to have it change when he meets her uncle, Pablo Escobar.

del Toro has confirmed that he’ll come to San Sebastian to present the film and receive the Donostia at the closing ceremony. Di Stefano, Josh Hutcherson and Carlos Bardem will also be present for the film’s Spanish premiere.

del Toro is a favorite at San Sebastian where he has accompanied films from his career.

del Toro won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic as well as an Oscar nomination for his work in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s 21 Grams.

del Toro re-teamed with Soderbergh to star in the biography of Che Guevera Che. The performance won him the Best Actor award at the Palme D’Or Closing Ceremony at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, and again the following year at the Goya Awards in Madrid, Spain.

He starred opposite Emily Blunt and Anthony Hopkins in Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman and as Lado in Oliver Stone’s Savages.

del Toro was starred as Jimmy, the lead in Jimmy P. The film was screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. He was last seen in Guardians of the Galaxy a sci-fi action film for Walt Disney Pictures/Marvel Enterprises, which was released in the beginning of August 2014.

Next year he’ll play Mambru in Fernando Leon’s A Perfect Day and Sauncho Smilax in Inherent Vice, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

The actor is currently in production on Denis Villeneuve’s Sicaro.

Hernandez to Star Opposite Benicio del Toro in Border Drama “Sicario”

Maximiliano Hernandez is making a run for the border.

The 41-year-old Latino actor has been cast in director Denis Villeneuve’s border film Sicario.

Maximiliano Hernandez

Starring Benicio del Toro, Emily Blunt and Josh Brolin, the drama centers on a female FBI agent assigned to work with two Delta Force operators to take down a Mexican cartel boss.

Hernandez, who has starred as Jasper Sitwell in the blockbuster films Thor, Avengers, and Captain America: Winter Soldier on television in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., will play Silvio, a hard-drinking drug smuggling cop in Mexico.

He currently stars on the new TNT drama series The Last Ship and recently appeared in Amazon’s pilot Hand of God, directed by Marc Forster.

del Toro In Final Talks to Star Opposite Emily Blunt in the Crime Thriller “Sicario”

Benicio del Toro may soon star in a Sic role…

The 47-year-old Puerto Rican actor, who earned an Academy Award for his performance in Traffic, is in final talks to star in the crime thriller Sicario.

Benicio del Toro

del Toro would star opposite Emily Blunt in the film which centers on the hunt for a dangerous drug kingpin.

Blunt will portray a female cop from Tucson, Arizona, who travels across the border to Mexico with mercenaries to catch a notorious drug lord.

Sicario will be helmed by Prisoners director Denis Villeneuve, based on a screenplay from Sons of Anarchy actor Taylor Sheridan.

del Toro will next star as Taneleer Tivan or The Collector in James Gunn‘s Guardians of the Galaxy, which will hit U.S. theaters on August 1.

He’s also among the cast of Paul Thomas Anderson‘s all-star crime comedy drama Inherent Vice along with Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon and Maya Rudolph, among others.