Juan Carlos Fresnadillo Archives - ShowBizCafe.com

Top 10 Hispanic directors that could direct Star Wars VII!

2012/11/05 at 12:00am

Top 10 Hispanic directors that could direct Star Wars VII!

11.5.2012 | By Jack Rico |

As you might have heard, Disney purchased Lucasfilm for 4 billion dollars, and with it, the Star Wars and Indiana Jones saga. The big talks to come out of that deal is that Disney is gun-ho on continuing the Star Wars saga, ergo, the seventh chapter of the series. For now Indy is out of the conversation.

With a look into the future of the iconic sci-fi franchise, we pick 10 directors – Hispanic directors – that possess the skill, vision and passion to take it into the next 35 years. By selecting these helmers and cinephiles, we break Hollywood conventions and give rise to a new generation of directors whom most likely grew up wanting to be the new George Lucas, laser-sword fighting like Luke Skywalker, quoting Han Solo, crushing on Princess Leia and fearing Darth Vader.

So without further adieu, we pick the Top 10 Hispanic directors we think can and should helm the new Star Wars trilogy. Read More

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to direct ‘Highlander’

By Jack Rico

2011/09/13 at 12:00am

Movies

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to direct ‘Highlander’

09.13.2011 | By Jack Rico |

The remake of Highlander, which starred Christopher Lambert, has been given the greenlight by Summit Entertainment to have its new director, Spanish filmmaker Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, who directed 28 Weeks Later and now, four years later, has Intruders opening at TIFF, to direct the remake.

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo will direct Summit Entertainment’s re-imagination of the cult film HIGHLANDER co-financed by RCR Media Group. Summit’s HIGHLANDER is written by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. Neal H. Mortiz and Peter Davis will produce the project along with Enrique López Lavigne and Belen Atienza. RCR Media Group’s principles Rui Costa Reis and Eliad Josephson will executive produce the film. Justin Lin will also executive produce. Summit acquired the rights to remake the cult classic from Davis – Panzer Productions, Inc. in May of 2008. Production on the film is slated to begin spring of 2012.

The Highlander premise goes like this:

He fought his first battle on the Scottish Highlands in 1536. He will fight his greatest battle on the streets of New York City in 1986. His name is Connor MacLeod. He is immortal. Connor Macleod was born in 1518 in the Highlands of Scotland. In 1536, after facing a mysterious, evil opponent, he survives a fatal stab wound and is banished from his village, for they believe his survival is the work of the Devil. Five years later, Macleod is met by Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez, a swordsman who teaches Macleod the awful truth; he is immortal, one of a race of many who can only die when the head is cut from the body. When one immortal takes the head of another, the loser’s power is absorbed into the winner. Ramirez teaches Macleod the ways of the sword, until Ramirez is tragically killed by Connor’s ultimate opponent, the evil Kurgan, a murderous immortal brute who lusts for the ultimate power of the immortals, “The Prize”; enough power to rule the earth forever. Connor fights his way through the centuries, until the time of the Gathering, when the few immortals who have survived the endless battles come together to fight until only one remains, and that winner will receive The Prize. The time: 1985. The place: New York City. The final fight is about to begin, and in the end, there can be only one.

By Mack Chico

2009/03/11 at 12:00am

Movies

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to direct ‘X’

03.11.2009 | By Mack Chico |

Spanish helmer Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has made a deal with MGM to develop a film based on director Roger Corman’s 1963 pic “X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes,” a movie from the Lion’s library.

The original starred Ray Milland as a scientist who is near a breakthrough in X-ray vision technology when his funding is cut off. Desperate to show results, the doc applies eye drops that eventually cause him to lose control over his growing powers.

Mandeville Films partners David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman will produce with Enrique Lopez Lavigne. Lou Arkoff will exec produce.

The director hasn’t committed to a film since “28 Weeks Later.”

Fresnadillo is in Hollywood this week meeting with writers for “X” and is expected to set one quickly.

Spanish directors to see more directing time

By Mack Chico

2009/02/25 at 12:00am

Movies

Spanish directors to see more directing time

02.25.2009 | By Mack Chico |

Spain’s Telecinco Cinema, producer of “Che,” “The Orphanage” and “Pan’s Labyrinth,” has boarded projects by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (“28 Days Later”), Juan Antonio Bayona (“Orphanage”) and Nacho Vigalondo (“Timecrimes”).

All will be co-produced by Telecinco and new Spanish shingle Apaches, headed by Enrique Lopez Lavigne and former Telecinco Cinema exec Belen Atienza.

Fresnadillo and Bayona have two projects a piece, all at script stage. Three pics are likely to be English-language, while the more modest of Bayona’s projects would be made in Spanish, said Ghislain Barrois, TC’s CEO.

The involvement of TC, the pic production division of broadcast network Telecinco, is crucial for these projects to get made.

Telecinco is required by government regulations to invest 5% of its annual revenue in Spanish and European fiction. Its minimum commitment for 2008, which it fulfilled, was e53.9 million ($68.7 million).

TC is one of the only production houses in Europe with the muscle to bankroll every year a clutch of mid- to low-budgeted English-language movies, a budget-range some U.S. studios have been abandoning.

TC put up 88% of financing for Alejandro Amenabar’s Rachel Weisz starrer “Agora,” said Telecinco CEO Paolo Vasile Tuesday at a presentation of Telecinco Cinema’s 2008-09 slate.

Sold internationally by Focus Features, “Agora” has been presented for consideration by the Cannes and Venice film festivals, Vasile added.

“Agora” is co-produced by Fernando Bovaira Mod Prods. and Amenabar’s Himenoptero. TC has also teamed with both shingles to produce Oskar Santos’ hospital thriller “El Mal ajeno.”

Starring Eduardo Noriega (“Vantage Point”) and Belen Rueda (“Orphanage”), the hospital-set thriller is written by Daniel Sanchez Arevalo, the director-writer of 2006’s seminal debut “DarkBlueAlmostBlack,” which heralded a new generation of Spanish filmmakers.

TC does not have an output deal with either Apaches or Mod, said Barrois.

“We have project-by-project deals with these producers. But they have privileged relationships with talent,” he added.

Bayona has “Hater” set up at Universal, produced by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Johnson; United Artists has acquired remake rights to Vigalondo’s “Timecrimes.”