The Walk (Movie Review)
09.29.2015 | By Adam Garcia |
The 1-4-0: With #TheWalk, Robert Zemeckis creates an amazing—and moving—3D experience about Philippe Petit’s high wire performance between the Twin Towers. Read More
09.29.2015 | By Adam Garcia |
The 1-4-0: With #TheWalk, Robert Zemeckis creates an amazing—and moving—3D experience about Philippe Petit’s high wire performance between the Twin Towers. Read More
03.6.2014 | By Mariana Dussan |
There might be a new trend alert in the horizon as both the film and television industries are looking to go hip-hop. Read More
02.18.2014 | By Jack Rico |
We got our hands on the first official photo from the new Roberto “Manos de Piedra” Duran biopic, ‘Hands Of Stone‘. The photo was released by its director and writer, Venezuelan man Jonathan Jakubowicz, on his Twitter account. The photo shows Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez as Duran; behind are Robert De Niro as coach Ray Arcel, Rubén Blades as Carlos Eleta, the manager. Read More
11.26.2013 | By Mariana Dussan |
In 2014, Tupac Shakur will live once again. According to The Hollywood Reporter financiers and producers Morgan Creek Productions and Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films held a reception late last week where producer Randall Emmett confirmed that shooting for the long-awaited biopic will start in the spring of 2014. Read More
11.20.2012 | By Jack Rico |
Puerto Rican actor John Ortiz, who can currently be seen in David O. Russell’s Oscar buzz film ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ and who is known for his roles in ‘Miami Vice’ and ‘Fast and Furious,’ exclusively told ShowBizCafe.com that he is in the early stages of developing an Ozzie Guillen biopic baseball movie in the form of ‘Moneyball’. Guillen, the former Chicago White Sox manager who managed the team between 2004 to 2011, is considered one of the most controversial managers in recent baseball history.
When we asked Ortiz if he was interested in directing anytime soon, he revealed he was working on a baseball movie:
“Ozzie Guillen and I are going to meet when I’m in Chicago. I don’t want to make a straight up baseball movie, but something along the lines of “Moneyball”. It’d be a lot more than just 9 guys on the baseball diamond. I want to do something where we focus on the profession of him being a baseball manager, how complex of a man he is, the culture, immigration, Chicago, Miami, [Fidel] Castro, there is so much there. I’m fascinated with him, I think he’s such a charismatic dude and people seem to love him or hate him. So I think he’d be a great subject for a movie.”
Ortiz, who plays Ronnie, a stressed-out married man in ‘Silver Linings Playbook,’ is still unclear whether he will direct, produce or star in the film. It could be one of them or all of them, but he says he will have a better sense of his role in the movie as the project gets closer to pre-production. Ortiz would be perfect for the Guillen role since they have a similar look and Ortiz possesses the acting pedigree from the theater to give the character weight and credibility.
For those who are unfamiliar with Ozzie Guillen, he is a well-known Venezuelan baseball player since his days as a top flight shortstop for the Chicago White Sox back in the 80’s and 90’s. But later in his career, he became a controversial and larger-than-life personality as the manager for the same team he played for, including the Miami Marlins earlier this year. Amongst his polemic on various issues, he called a Chicago Sun-Times columnist a homosexual slur, said Asian players are treated better than Latino players, and was quoted as loving Communist dictator Fidel Castro, which infuriated Cubans residing in Miami. Despite his quarrels with the press, Guillen is an accomplished baseball mind. In 2005, he became the first Latino manager in major league history to win a World Series.
Ortiz made his film debut as Al Pacino’s young cousin ‘Guajiro’ in Carlito’s Way. He went on to appear in over 30 films including Pride and Glory, El Cantante, American Gangster, Before Night Falls, Amistad, Ransom, and Narc.
What other Latino baseball player do you guys think should have a movie based on their lives? Our money is on the Yankee’s Alex Rodriguez and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson should play him. Leave us your comments below.
03.24.2009 | By Mack Chico |
Anne Hathaway will go over the rainbow for the Weinstein Co.
The New York minimajor confirmed Monday that it has attached the “Rachel Getting Married” star to its Judy Garland biopic “Get Happy.”
The project, which has not yet signed a writer or director, will be based on Gerald Clarke’s biography of the same name, which TWC recently optioned. Clarke draws on numerous real-life sources to tell the life story of Garland, who began singing and acting as a toddler and continued doing so all the way through her premature death at the age of 47.
Garland led a life filled with talent but also tumult, starring and singing in a host of studio musicals and other pictures, as well as giving iconic performances on stages in New York and London. She also struggled with addiction and endured a series of relationship dramas.
Hathaway also began her career at a young age, starring in the tween franchise “The Princess Diaries.” In the past few years she has graduated to more adult roles, playing a former addict in “Rachel Getting Married,” which earned her a best actress Oscar nom.
While she has little musical experience on the screen, Hathaway caught viewers’ attention with a musical number she and host Hugh Jackman performed at the 2009 Academy Awards, though the pic’s producers will have to resolve the question of height: Garland was barely 5′, while Hathaway stands about 5′ 8″.
01.19.2009 | By Jack Rico |
Just last week, Variety announced that NBC Chairman and President Ben Silverman was going to executive produce the biopic of ‘Cantinflas,’ the most famous comedian in Mexico’s history. Since not much was said, we had to get in contact with Jay Weisleder, a 34 year old Costa Rican Jewish producer and brainchild behind bringing the comedian’s life to the big screen, to expand on the details of the project.
We called him on his cell phone while he was in Los Angeles and here’s what we were able to obtain and print on record:
– The lead for the film is unknown and they will not be looking for potential lead actors until Alejandro Monteverde, the co-writer and director, finishes developing the script. Four years ago they had in mind Diego Luna, Wilmer Valderrama, John Leguizamo and Gael Garcia Bernal to play the role. When we probed Weisleder about Leguizamo, he said he saw ‘Paraiso Travel’ and enjoyed his performance in it and that he would love to sit with him and other potential candidates in the near future. His criteria, though not strict, has him nailing down a Mexican actor which is why we think he is leaning towards Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna. Since Gael is the stronger actor of the two, we’ll assume he’s their #1 desired candidate. On the female front, Natalie Portman, Rachel McAdams, Scarlett Johansson are being thought of as possible co-stars.
– The synopsis has been a kept secret from the press due to the delicate, sensitive nature of the script. We were conveyed the whole plot line, but were asked, off the record, to not print any verbiage of it. What we can tell you is that most of the story will be focused around two characters and a possible third one, a female. It will also explore self discovery, responsibility, a coming of age theme and an intense family transgression. As soon as we get the ok, we will posting up more info about the film in the upcoming weeks.
– The movie will be spoken in Spanish with some scenes in English and they’ll be shooting for a 2010 Mexican/US production release under, perhaps, a Universal Pictures distribution.
For those of you unfamiliar with Cantinflas’ work, here’s a snippet of his acting from ‘Around the World in 80 Days’
We want to get more of your feedback on the casting process and see if you have better ideas on who should be playing Cantinflas. Stay webbed!
01.15.2009 | By Mack Chico |
Producers Michael Cerenzie and Christine Peters are bringing a Steve McQueen biopic to the bigscreen.
The pair have acquired the rights to Marshall Terrill’s biography “Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel.” Project will likely land at Paramount, where Cerenzie-Peters Prods. has a first-look deal.
Project will primarily chronicle McQueen’s Hollywood career, which began in 1956 when the Indiana native got his break in the pic “Somebody Up There Likes Me.”
Cerenzie and Peters are producing alongside Brian Oliver and Chuck Rock of Arthaus Prods.
Tome, which was published in paperback in October, also delves into McQueen’s offscreen penchant for motorcycles, fast cars and drugs. Project will examine his three marriages, including his stormy relationship with Ali McGraw, as well as his battle against lung cancer.
Cerenzie has secured the cooperation of McQueen’s widow, Barbara Minty.
Cerenzie and Peters are close to attaching a director to the project.
Cerenzie, who most recently produced the Philip Seymour Hoffman starrer “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead,” has several films set up with Peters including the crime drama “Black Mass,” which is also being produced by Arthaus.
Peters (“How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”) is producing “The Friday Night Knitting Club” at Universal with Julia Roberts attached to star.
01.13.2009 | By Jack Rico |
As soon as I heard Cantinflas was announced as a major motion picture film, I immediately thought of colombian actor John Leguizamo as the perfect lead. For those who don’t know who Cantinflas is, he was the greatest film comedian Mexico ever produced. Leguizamo would be an obvious choice and here are the 3 reasons why:
1. He physically looks like him
2. He speaks Spanish (broken Spanish, but he speaks it)
and…
3. He’s a natural comedian
One problem producers will confront from the get go would be his Spanish. He has a Nuyorican accent he can’t shake – have you heard him in Love in the Time of Cholera playing a colombian? He sounds like… you guessed it, a Puerto Rican from New York. Leguizamo, who was born in Bogota, Colombia, will have to master an authentic Mexican accent without sounding like Speedy Gonzalez. If he does that, and Alejandro Gomez Monteverde can write a formidable script, we could see a watershed moment in Leguizamo’s acting career for the better. Salma Hayek did something similar with ‘Frida’ and the results were an Oscar nomination as best actress for that role. I don’t see anyone else with a recognizable name playing the Mexican icon, unless they go with an unknown, which would be a bad business move if the producers go that route. Let’s see what happens, folks!
Here is a pic of Leguizamo with a moustache. What do you think? Leave a comment below.
Below is the Variety report about the Cantinflas biopic:
Latino comic and actor Cantinflas, his real name is Fortino Mario Alfonso Moreno Reyes, who helped usher in the golden era of Mexican filmmaking in the 1940s and ’50s, will be the focus of a biopic by Alejandro Gomez Monteverde.
Alejandro Gomez Monteverde will co-write and direct “Cantinflas,” a biopic about the comedian and actor who helped usher in a golden era of Mexican filmmaking in the ’40s and ’50s.
NBC co-chairman Ben Silverman will serve as an exec producer on the feature film with Monteverde and TV producer Jay Weisleder producing. Monteverde, whose drama “Bella” won the People’s Choice Award at the 2006 Toronto Intl. Film Festival, will co-write the script with Jose Portillo.
Despite his debut to American audiences in “Around the World in 80 Days” (1956), Cantinflas is not well known in the English-speaking world.
After pitching the idea to Silverman, Weisleder told the reluctant exec to ask any Latino about Cantinflas. “The moment he did that he called me from a restaurant and said ‘I got 10 people following me. Everybody knows who he is. We gotta do this,’ ” Weisleder said.
As the founder and former owner of Reveille, Silverman remains attached as an exec producer on several Reveille features projects, which include the Kurt Cobain biopic at Universal and “Staked Plains” at Focus.
Weisleder worked with Silverman at Reveille and has several television projects in development, including the comedy “My Problems With Women,” exec produced by Justin Timberlake. Monteverde and Weisleder secured the rights with the late actor’s son, Mario Moreno Ivanova, who will serve as an associate producer on the project.
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.
