Gael García Bernal Starring in the Hitchcockian Thriller “Holland, Michigan”

Posted on February 6, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Gael García Bernal is headed to the Midwest…

The 44-year-old Mexican Golden Globe-winning actor/director will star opposite Nicole Kidman and Matthew Macfadyen in the Hitchcockian thriller Holland, Michigan.

From Prime Video, the film will be directed by Mimi Cave.

While Holland, Michigan is said to concern secrets that lurk beneath a Midwestern town, specifics as to the plot of the film scripted by Andrew Sodroski are under wraps.

Blossom Films’ Kidman and Per Saari are producing alongside Pacific View Management & Productions’ Peter Dealbert, and Churchill Films’ Kate Churchill.

The film will stream in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

Garcia Bernal is known for his performances in the films Bad Education, The Motorcycle Diaries, Amores perros, Y tu mamá también, Babel, Coco and Old.

He won a Golden Globe for his role as Rodrigo de Souza in the series Mozart in the Jungle.

Maribel Verdú Starring in Apple Studios’ “Raymond and Ray”

Posted on October 24, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Maribel Verdú is providing care…

The 51-year-old Spanish actress has been cast in Apple Studios’ Raymond and Ray alongside Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo.

Verdu and Okonedo join a cast that includes Ewan McGregor and Ethan Hawke.

The Rodrigo García-directed and written feature, which is currently filming in Virginia, follows half-brothers Raymond (McGregor) and Ray (Hawke) who have lived in the shadow of a terrible father. Somehow, they still each have a sense of humor, and his funeral is a chance for them to reinvent themselves. There’s anger, there’s pain, there’s folly, there might be love, and there’s definitely grave-digging.

Verdú will star as Lucia, a partner and caretaker to Raymond and Ray’s father. Her character is described as one having the innate strength and alluring personality that will mend the broken family in the wake of the father’s death.

Verdú , an 11-time Goya Award nominee and two-time winner, starred in Y tu mamá también and Pan’s Labyrinth.

Raymond and Ray is produced by Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón, Bonnie Curtis and Julie Lynn, who’ll produce through their Mockingbird Pictures.

Diego Luna to Receive 2021 Platino Award of Honor

Posted on September 6, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Diego Luna is being celebrated for his platinum career.

This year’s seventh edition of the Ibero-American Platino Awards (Premios Platinos) will honor the 41-year-old Mexican actor, director, producer and festival organizer with the Platino Award of Honor.

An itinerant award show by design, this year’s Platinos will be held on October 3 in Madrid.

Luna will be the youngest recipient of the career achievement honor, joining previous winners Miguel Rafael Martos Sánchez, often simply referred to as Raphael, one of Spain’s most iconic entertainers of the 20th century; Adriana Barraza, the Oscar nominated Spanish-English-language crossover star of Alejandro Iñárritu’s Babel and Amores Perros; Oscar and three time Primetime Emmy nominee Edward James Olmos (Stand and Deliver); Oscar nominee Antonio Banderas (Pain and Glory); and Primetime Emmy (The Burning Season) and BAFTA (“Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos) nominee Sonia Braga.

A child actor who excelled from an early age, Luna’s first film appearance was in Javier Bourges’ 1991 Mexican Academy Award-nominated short The Last New Year.” He appeared in several telenovelas throughout the ‘90s, joined on screen for the first time by his longtime collaborator and close friend Gael García Bernal in El abuelo y yo in 1992. Alternating between film and television over the next decade, his international breakout came with García Bernal and Spain’s Marbel Verdú in Alfonso Cuarón’s seminal coming-of-age road trip film “Y Tu Mamá También.”

Shortly after, Luna began his Hollywood career appearing alongside Bon Jovi in John Carpenter’s Vampires: Los Muertos and in Salma Hayek’s Oscar-winning biopic Frida.

In the decades since, Luna has continued to work on both Latin American and U.S. productions while also taking turns as a producer, writer and director. He also, again with García Bernal, launched the nomadic documentary film festival Ambulante, as well as their own production label, first Canana in 2005 and now La Corriente del Golfo.

Most recently, he created and hosts the Amazon Original conversation series Pan y Circo and is starring in the Disney+’s Andor, a spinoff series following his Rogue One: A Star Wars Story character Cassian Andor.

He was also recently confirmed as a voice actor for Netflix’s upcoming animated series Maya and the Three, where he will team with frequent collaborator Jorge Gutierrez (The Book of Life).

Last year’s ceremony was, like so many, forced online by the COVID-19 pandemic. But this time around, the Platinos are planning an in-person event to celebrate the best offerings from the Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American screen industries.

At 11 nominations each, the two standout titles are Fernando Trueba’s Colombian drama Memories of My Father and Jayro Bustamante’s Guatemalan thriller La Llorona.

The Platino Awards are promoted by EGEDA (Spain’s Entity for the Rights Management of Audiovisual Producers) and FIPCA (the Ibero-American Federation of Film and Audiovisual Producers) and have the support of the Ibero-American film academies and institutes as well as numerous sponsors in Europe and Latin America.

Rosie Perez to Star in Apple TV+’s Bilingual Thriller Drama Series “Now and Then”

Posted on May 29, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Rosie Perez is ready to thrill…

The 56-year-old Puerto Rican Oscar-nominated actress and activist has been cast in Apple TV+’s bilingual thriller Now and Then, a drama series that’ll be shot in Spanish and English.

In addition to Perez, who most recently appeared in The Flight Attendant and Birds of Prey, the stellar ensemble cast also includes Marina de Tavira (Roma), José María Yazpik (Narcos: Mexico), Maribel Verdú (Y tu mamá también, Pan’s Labyrinth), Manolo Cardona (Who Killed Sara?), Soledad Villamil (The Secret in their Eyes) and Željko Ivanek.

The series that hails from Bambú Producciones and creators Ramón Campos, Teresa Fernández-Valdés and Gema R. Neira, the team behind the Spanish series Velvet, Cable Girls and Gran Hotel. Gideon Raff will executive produce and direct the first two episodes.

Set in Miami, Now and Then explores the differences between youthful aspirations and the reality of adulthood, when the lives of a group of college best friends are forever changed after a celebratory weekend ends up with one of them dead. Now, 20 years later, the remaining five are reluctantly reunited by a threat that puts their seemingly perfect worlds at risk.

De Tavira will play Ana, a smart and ambitious woman who put her political career on hold to support her husband’s.

Perez is Flora, a talented detective obsessed with an unresolved case from 20 years ago, who will stop at nothing to discover the truth.

Yazpik portrays Pedro, a complex politician married to Ana, he feels entangled in a life that doesn’t belong to him.

Verdu plays Sofia, a strong self-made lawyer who’s life took an unexpected turn 20 years ago and is now hiding too many secrets.

Cardona portrays Marcos, a passionate surgeon who sacrificed his dreams for his family and friends.

Villamil is Daniela, an introspective artist who constantly struggles to overcome a traumatic event from her past.

Ivanek plays Sullivan, seasoned detective who keeps his partner Flora from getting into too much trouble, always operates based on evidence and logic.

The series will be written by Neira and Campos with their team. Campos and Fernández-Valdés will serve as showrunners. Bambú Producciones will produce for Apple TV+.

Maribel Verdú to Star as Ezra Miller’s Mom in Warner Bros. Standalone “The Flash” Film

Posted on March 13, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Maribel Verdú has landed the mother of a role…

The 50-year-old Spanish actress will star in Warner Bros.’ The Flash film.

Verdú, best known for her roles in Y Tu Mama Tambien and Pan’s Labyrinth, will portray Barry Allen’s mother in the upcoming Warner Bros. DC standalone movie.

Billy Crudup, due to a schedule conflict on the second season of Apple’s The Morning Show, won’t be reprising his role as Flash’s father.

Ezra Miller will be playing Allen/The Flash again. Cameras will roll in the spring to summer in London.

Andy Muschietti is directing off a screenplay written by Christina Hodson.

While the plot is under wraps, The Flash reportedly involves alternate dimensions with Allen trying to save his mother from being murdered. Also making cameos are alternate dimension Batmans, Michael Keaton from the 1980s Warner Bros. films and Ben Affleck from the millennium ones.

Alfonso Cuarón Reportedly Working on Horror Television Series

Posted on October 19, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Alfonso Cuarón is ready to bring the drama to television…

The 55-year-old Mexican filmmaker is reportedly working with Anonymous Content on a drama series, which is being pitched to pay cable and streaming outlets, garnering interest from multiple networks, according to Deadline.com.

Cuarón would work with actor Casey Affleck on the project.

Details about the project are being kept under wraps, but it is rumored to be a horror genre series that tracks the origins of a cult.

Cuarón is writing, directing and executive producing; Affleck is starring and executive producing. Anonymous Content, which signed Cuarón earlier this year, is producing.

Cuarón, who won the Best Director Oscar for directing Gravity, has a diverse feature resume that also includes Children of Men, Y Tu Mama Tambien and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

His next movie, Roma, is slated for release next year.

On the television side, Cuarón previously co-created and executive produced the NBC drama series Believe.

Celis Producing First TV Series, “Monstruos Perfectos”

Posted on April 3, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Nicolas Celis is ready for the small screen…

The 30-year old Mexican film producer is preparing for his first television series, Monstruos Perfectos, which recently received development support from the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE) under the new TV series support scheme launched in late 2016.

Meanwhile, Celis’ Pimienta Films, one of Mexico’s leading production outfits, is completing production on Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” his first picture lensed in Mexico since “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” and “Birds of Passage,” from Colombia’s Oscar nominated Ciro Guerra (“Embrace of the Serpent”).

Monstruos Perfectos is set in Mexico and will be produced by Pimienta, with external producers Marion d’Ornato and Enrique M. Rizo. Rizo has worked with Celis as second assistant director on Semana Santa, and as production manager on Tempestad, Soy Nero and The Untamed.

“This will be my first experience in TV,” Celis revealed to Variety, although he refrained from outlining the story. “I’m really happy to jump aboard. For me this is completely new world. I really love that IMCINE is exploring new content opportunities. We want to make a TV series that’s much more cinematic, than TV series produced in Mexico so far.”

Celis said that it’s been great to work with Cuaron on Roma, having previously worked with his brother, Carlos, on “Rudo y Cursi,” early in his career, and having been one of the producers on the 2015 pic Desierto, by his son, Jonas.

“Roma” chronicles a year in the life of a middle-class family in Mexico City in the early 1970s and is produced by Cuaron, Celis, Gabriela Rodriguez (“Gravity”), and exec produced by Participant Media.

Roma is Celis’ first period movie. Its 1970s setting was prior to his own birth – in 1986 – which he says provoked some wisecracks during the shoot. “For me it’s been my most challenging and interesting project so far. I’m a big fan of Alfonso’s work since a kid and I loved that he wanted me to work on his new film.”

Guerra’s Birds of Passage is also set in the 1970s and is produced by Colombia’s Ciudad Lunar (Cristina Gallego and Katrin Pors), as well as Celis and Argentine producers MC Productions and Buffalo Films, with Colombia’s Caracol TV also on board.

Celis previously worked with Pors on The Untamed. “Working with Katrin has been a great discovery,” said Celis. “We’re trying to work with her on our next projects.”

Luna to Serve on the Berlin Film Festival’s International Jury

Posted on February 1, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Diego Luna is joining the judge’s panel…

The 37-year-old Mexican actor, producer and director has been named to the Berlin Film Festival’s International Jury this year.

Maggie Gyllenhaal, German actress Julia Jentsch, Tunisian producer Dora Bouchoucha, Iceland’s Olafur Eliasson and Chinese writer-director Wang Quan’an will join Luna to round out the jury that will decide who will receive the Golden and Silver Bears at Berlinale next month.

Dutch helmer-writer Paul Verhoeven will lead the jury as President.

Luna’s breakthrough role come with Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También and he’s recently stared in Disney’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and has had roles in Contraband, Milk and The Terminal. His directorial debut Abel premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010.

The Berlin Film Festival takes place February 9-19.

Cuarón Working with Participant Media on His Next Feature Film

Posted on September 9, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Alfonso Cuarón is readying his next project…

The 54-year-old Mexican filmmaker is teaming with Participant Media on his next feature film, an untitled project he’s writing and directing.

The movie will chronicle a year in the life of a middle-class family in Mexico City in the early 1970s, and production is slated to begin in Mexico this fall.

It’ll be the Oscar winner’s first movie shot there since his breakout 2001 hit Y Tu Mamá También.

Cuarón won the Best Director Oscar for his last film Gravity, which was nominated for seven Oscars in 2014 including Best Picture and won seven.

Luna to Star in Next “Star Wars” Feature, “Star Wars: Rogue One”

Posted on May 14, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

May the force be with Diego Luna…

The 35-year-old Mexican actor, director and producer has landed a co-starring role in the next installment of the Star Wars feature series, Star Wars: Rogue One.

The film, which will also star Felicity Jones and Ben Mendelsohn, will be released by Disney in December.

Luna, who directed and produced Cesar Chavez, also was part of the cast of Milk, Elysium, The Terminal and Y Tu Mama Tambien.

No word yet on the role Luna will portray in the film.

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