04.1.2015 | By Jack Rico |
Here’s the first trailer from the almost forgotten story of Los 33, the survival of 33 Chilean miners north of the regional capital of Copiapó, in northern Chile in 2010. The movie which had Javier Bardem and Jennifer Lopez at some point attached to it, settled on a cast led by Antonio Banderas and co-starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Rodrigo Santoro, Juliette Binoche, Kate del Castillo and Juan Pablo Raba. Read More
10.11.2013 | By Jack Rico |
The “1-4-0″: “MACHETE don’t make good sequels.” He’s a great character who ran into a stale script full of retread jokes & too much dialogue. It’s not as funny anymore. Read More
10.1.2013 | By Jack Rico |
October could very well be the single best month to watch movies of 2013. When you do a quick overview of the films being released this month, five of them are the frontrunners to win Best Picture at the Oscars 2014. Many of these movies possess all star casts, top flight directors and innovative and fresh stories. They are also coming fresh off of great reviews at Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York Film Festivals. Not to be ignored are the commercial fare which includes Arnold and Sly together in a full feature film as opposed to cameos and one of the greatest assembled cast of Hispanics in film history in ‘Machete Kills‘ and ‘The Counselor‘. Do yourself a service, if you haven’t been to the movies all year, this is the one month you should step out and watch one.
Here are 10 movies I recommend you watch…now! Read More
02.22.2012 | By Mack Chico |
Antonio Banderas will play Pablo Picasso in Carlos Saura‘s upcoming “33 Dias (33 Days),” about the painter’s emotional turmoil as he worked on masterpiece “Guernica.”
“33 Dias” refers to the time Picasso spent on the mural, which captured his reaction to the destruction of Basque town of Guernica in 1937 by the Nazi Luftwaffe during the Spanish Civil War.
“[Picasso] is a character that has pursued me for a long time and I always rejected,” said Banderas. “He deserves a lot of respect because I am from Malaga, and I was born four blocks from where he was born.”
The French and Spanish language film will begin shooting next summer in Paris and Guernica. The budget is set around $8 million.
06.8.2009 | By Mack Chico |
After actor Antonio Banderas revealed that “Puss in Boots” would indeed be an origin story for the character first introduced through “Shrek 2”, screenwriter David H. Steinberg confirmed that Puss will be the only original character kept for the spin-off. “No, all new characters – except Puss,” the scribe told Moviehole, dishing out possibility of Shrek, Fiona or Donkey making an appearance.
As for the reason behind the elimination of those popular characters, Steinberg pointed out on the fact that he is in the blank on the “Shrek Forever After” and “Shrek 5” scripts. “It doesn’t overlap with Shrek at all,” he explained. “Partly that was done to tell an original Puss story, but partly because we didn’t know what Shrek 4 (and now Shrek 5) were going to do with the characters and we couldn’t write conflicting storylines.”
Earlier, Puss’ voice actor, Banderas, has opened up to Coming Soon on what this spin-off will be dealing with. “…we’re going to go from the time he’s a very little cat, so you see actually why and how he becomes an adult killer, and the reasons why he ends up on that path,” he said. “It’s interesting because it goes away from that kind of use of popular culture that ‘Shrek’ has. It goes in a different way, and the movie sometimes gets almost emotional, I may say, and it’s kind of epic.”
“I found when they pitched the movie to me, and now reading the script, a total real connection with the character. Obviously, he’s a cartoon, but (I have) a real personal connection with him in terms of what he’s expressing. It’s very emotional at some points, it’s very special. It’s going to surprise people I think; they’re not going to expect what we’re going to do.”
Scheduled to hit U.S. theaters on March 20, 2012, “Puss in Boots” will be directed by “Shrek the Third” helmer Chris Smith. Its official synopsis is read, “Swords will cross and hearts will be broken in this adventure starring one of the most beloved characters of the Shrek universe – Puss In Boots. It’s a swashbuckling ride through Puss’s early years as he teams with mastermind Humpty Dumpty and the street-savvy Kitty (Salma Hayek) to steal the famed Goose that lays the Golden Eggs.”
05.12.2009 | By Mack Chico |
Antonio Banderas is set to star in “The Big Bang,” a neo-noir detective story to be directed by Tony Krantz.
Richard Rionda Del Castro, Krantz and Erik Jendresen will produce the film, based on a script by Jendresen (“Band of Brothers”). Production begins in Spokane, Wash., in September.
Banderas stars as an L.A. private detective who’s hired to find a missing stripper. The trail leads to the New Mexico desert, where the private eye finds a trail of bodies and contends with a brutal Russian boxer, three LAPD detectives and an aging billionaire looking to perfect the nuclear physics equivalent of the Big Bang.
Exec producing will be Patricia Eberle, Richard Salvatore and Ross Dinerstein.
Rionda Del Castro’s Hannibal Pictures is financing and handling foreign sales at Cannes. U.S. representation is being handled by WMA and Endeavor.
Pic marks the first theatrical feature for Krantz, one of the few ex-agents to make that leap. Krantz, who spent 15 years packaging series at CAA and later heading Imagine TV, previously directed two Jendresen-scripted films — “Sublime” and “Otis”– that were designed to go direct to video through Raw Feed, a venture Krantz co-created.
Krantz now owns Flame Ventures, whose slate includes a NASCAR Imax film in 3-D that Krantz will direct, and “The Conversation,” a series for AMC based on the Francis Ford Coppola film that is being written by Jendresen and Christopher McQuarrie.
Banderas most recently completed a starring role in Woody Allen‘s as-yet-untitled next film.
04.2.2009 | By Mack Chico |
Antonio Banderas will exec produce a U.S. version of “Camera Café,” the hit French short comedy format.
David E. Saltzman will helm the first series of 35×3.5-minute episodes about life in an office as seen from the point of view of a camera hidden in the coffee machine.
Banderas will make a cameo appearance in the pilot as a delivery guy.
Series will start shooting this month to air on web platform MIO.TV. Execs hope to package it for TV for a second run.
“Banderas knows the show from Spain, and we’re very excited to have him as our ambassador,” said Nicolas Coppermann, managing director of Robin & Co., parent company of Paris-based Calt Distribution, which created “Camera Café.”
MIO.TV, run by Manuel Garcia Duran, former manager at Spain’s Telefonica Media, financed the first 20 episodes and is negotiating with coffee brands for finance for the following episodes
Calt has sold localized versions of “Camera Café,” a pun on the French term camera cachee which means hidden camera, to 55 territories including China.
Sales inked at Mip TV included Lebanon’s MTV and Romania’s MVM.
02.27.2009 | By Mack Chico |
Antonio Banderas has been added to the lengthening cast of Woody Allen‘s next pic, a still-untitled project set to roll this summer in London, according to producer Mediapro.
The Spanish actor joins the already-announced Naomi Watts, who will co-star with “Slumdog Millionaire” discovery Freida Pinto, Josh Brolin and Anthony Hopkins.
This will be Banderas’ first gig with Allen.
Film will be produced by Letty Aronson, Steve Tenenbaum and Jaume Roures, a principal at Barcelona-based Mediapro, which will also finance the movie.
Aronson’s Gravier Prods. co-produced “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” with Mediapro.
The London project kicks off a three-pic co-production deal between Allen and Mediapro.
02.23.2009 | By Mack Chico |
An alleged plot synopsis for “Shrek Goes Fourth” has been leaked online. The website Alex Litel’s Lackluster Emporium claims it has stumbled upon a copyright pre-registration for the film.
According to the leaked story, the fourth installment of the successful DreamWorks Animation franchise will see the main protagonist, Shrek, duped into agreeing to an alternate world, wherein he never meets his wife Fiona.
The synopsis reads: “After challenging an evil dragon, rescuing a beautiful princess and saving your in-laws’ kingdom, what’s an ogre to do? Well, if you’re Shrek, you suddenly wind up a domesticated family man.”
“Instead of scaring villagers away like he used to, a reluctant Shrek now agrees to autograph pitch forks. What’s happened to this ogre’s roar? Longing for the days when he felt like a ‘real ogre,’ Shrek is duped into signing a pact with the smooth-talking dealmaker, Rumplestiltskin.”
“Shrek suddenly finds himself in a twisted, alternate version of Far Far Away, where ogres are hunted, Rumplestiltskin is king and Shrek and Fiona have never met. Now, it’s up to Shrek to undo all he’s done in the hopes of saving his friends, restoring his world and reclaiming his on True Love.”
The authenticity of the supposedly leaked plot is yet to be proven.
“Shrek Goes Fourth” is slated to be released on May 21, 2010 in conventional and IMAX theaters. Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, and Antonio Banderas are all expected to reprise their roles.
11.6.2008 | By Mack Chico |
Antonio Banderas is in final negotiations to play Salvador Dali in the Simon West-helmed indie biopic “Dali.”
Media 8 Entertainment (“Monster”) is producing alongside West’s shingle, which has been developing the project since 2003, when West optioned the feature film rights to Jeremy Walters’ spec script for low- to mid-six figures.
Film will blend music with CGI sequences in an effort to capture the inventiveness and color of the painter. Story will explore how Dali conquered America and the world with sex, sin and surrealism only to succumb later to worldwide scandal and misfortune.
At least two other Dali biopics are in the works: Al Pacino is attached to play the artist in “Dali & I: The Surreal Story,” with Andrew Niccol directing; and “Twilight’s” Robert Pattinson stars as Dali in the upcoming “Little Ashes,” which chronicles the young life and loves of the painter as well as filmmaker Luis Bunuel and writer Federico Garcia Lorca.
West is producing “Dali” alongside Jib Polhemus (“Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”). Media 8 is handling worldwide sales, with pre-sales beginning this week at the American Film Market.
Media 8 has already sold the film in Eastern Europe to Revolutionary Releasing, which is comprised of some of the territory’s leading companies, including Monolith, Blitz, Bonton, Forum and MediaPro.
West added that the project will focus not only on Dali’s outrageous lifestyle but his lifelong love affair with Gala, his wife, muse and manipulative manager.
Shooting is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2009 in Spain and England. The film will be an international co-production.
