Jamila Velazquez to Star in the Dramatic Thriller “John Henry”

Jamila Velazquez is in for a thrill

The 22-year-old Puerto Rican, Dominican and Ecuadorian American actress has joined the cast of John Henry, a dramatic thriller from first-time film director Will Forbes.

Jamila Velazquez

Described as a modern retelling of the folklore, the plot, co-written by Forbes and Doug Skinner, follows John Henry (Terry Crews), a man who has traded violence for a peaceful life in South Los Angeles. But when he meets two immigrant kids running from the leader of his former gang (Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges), Henry must decide whether to revisit his troubled past in order to give them a future.

In addition to Crews, Bridges and Velazquez, best known for her television roles on Twisted and Empire, the film will also star Ken Foree, Tyler Alvarez, and JJ Soria.

The indie is being produced by Defiant StudiosEric B. Fleischman, Automatik’s Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, and Kodiak’s Maurice Fadida.

ABC Family Orders the Mexican Telenovela Remake of “Chasing Life”

Lifetime’s Devious Maids isn’t the only new U.S. television program based on a Mexican series…

ABC Family has given a  series order to the drama Chasing Life, which  was originally called Terminales, for an early 2014 launch.

Terminales

Chasing Life, which received a 13-episode order, according to Deadline.com, joins new ABC Family drama series The Fosters and Twisted, meaning all three of the network’s pilots from the most recent cycle are going to series.

Chasing Life is an adaptation of the successful Televisa Spanish-language series Terminales. The pilot was produced by Lionsgate in association with Televisa.

Chasing Life stars Italia Ricci as April, an ambitious young newspaper reporter who tries to balance her career aspirations with her family — her widowed mom Sara (Mary Page Keller), rebellious little sister Brenna (Haley Ramm), and her grandmother. Just as things start to look up at work, home and on the romance front with co-worker Dominic (Richard Brancatisano), April gets the devastating news from an estranged uncle that she has cancer.

The Mexican version, which premiered in September 2008, stars Ana Claudia Talancón, Alfonso Herrera, Andrés Almeida, Isela Vega, Opi Domínguez and Danny Perea.