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Robert Rodriguez to launch new television network

2012/02/21 at 12:00am

Robert Rodriguez to launch new television network

02.21.2012 | By Jack Rico |

According to Deadline.com, Robert Rodriguez, FactoryMade Ventures CEO John Fogelman and Cristina Patwa will be launching El Rey Network, a cable television networl, looking to serve a U.S.-born Latino market they believe is underserved.

Tres Pistoleros, will be developing programming for El Rey, creating content across multiple platforms including reality, scripted and animated series as well as movies, documentaries, music, comedy and sports programming. El Rey will primarily be in English and showcase Hispanic producers, celebrities and public figures. El Rey Network hopes to launch by January 2014.

Rodriguez will continue to direct films but said he will take an active daily role in overseeing El Rey and Tres Pistoleros. Fogelman added that “well-known executives” will be announced in the next couple months to help run the new ventures.

Mexican Gerardo Naranjo to direct Fox’s ‘Mountain’

By Jack Rico

2012/02/02 at 12:00am

Movies

Mexican Gerardo Naranjo to direct Fox’s ‘Mountain’

02.2.2012 | By Jack Rico |

For anyone who has rebuked mainstream America for not giving Latinos opoortunities to showcase their talents, then how do you explain Gerardo Naranjo? Yeah, I know what you’re saying… “a good agent and being Hispanic is in vogue.” You might be right, but it’s happening. It’s becoming an American reality, an a normalcy we need to get used to.

According to Deadline.com, 20th Century Fox and Chernin Entertainment are negotiating with Gerardo Naranjo to direct The Mountain Between Us, an adaptation of the Charles Martin novel.

For those of you who don’t know who Gerado Naranjo, he’s coming off Miss Bala, Mexico’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar submission. It is executive produced by Mexican heavyweights Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna and tells the story of Laura, a young woman whose aspirations of becoming a beauty queen turn against her, delivering her into the hands of a gang that’s terrorizing northern Mexico. Although Laura succeeds in winning the beauty queen crown, her experiences as an unwilling participant in Mexico’s violent war leave her shaken and transformed.

From what we understand, The Mountain Between Us, is adapted by J. Mills Goodloe, and is both a harrowing tale of survival and a love story. Ashley is a writer catching a flight from Salt Lake City and heading East for her wedding. Ben is a doctor returning from a medical conference. When a their flight is cancelled due to a broken de-icer, the strangers agree to charter a ride, only to see the pilot suffer a heart attack and crash into a desolate snowy mountain region. He breaks ribs and she suffers a leg fracture. Fortunately, aside from a doctor he’s an avid climber, and as he struggles to get her down from the mountain in harsh weather, she begins to realize that maybe she was headed to marry the wrong guy.

How will Naranjo fair in his debut? Only time will tell, but we’re rooting for him to establish a reputation of quality work worthy of awards.

Bichir nominated at 2012 Independent Spirit Awards

By Jack Rico

2011/11/29 at 12:00am

Movies

Bichir nominated at 2012 Independent Spirit Awards

11.29.2011 | By Jack Rico |

Mexican actor Demián Bichir and the half-Dominican, half-Puerto Rican transgender actress Harmony Santana have been nominated for awards at the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards. The films they represent are ‘A Better Life’ and ‘Gun Hill Road’, respectively.

Also, if you’re just becoming curious on what films are creating buzz in Hollywood come awards season, check out the rest of the nominations:

BEST FEATURE (Award given to the Producer, Executive Producers are not listed)
50/50 Producers: Evan Goldberg, Ben Karlin, Seth Rogen
Beginners Producers: Miranda de Pencier, Lars Knudsen, Leslie Urdang, Dean Vanech, Jay Van Hoy
Drive Producers: Michel Litvak, John Palermo, Marc Platt, Gigi Pritzker, Adam Siegel
Take Shelter Producers: Tyler Davidson, Sophia Lin
The Artist Producer: Thomas Langmann
The Descendants Producers: Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

BEST DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Mike Mills – Beginners
Jeff Nichols – Take Shelter
Alexander Payne – The Descendants
Nicolas Winding Refn – Drive

BEST SCREENPLAY
Joseph Cedar – Footnote
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Tom McCarthy – Win Win
Mike Mills – Beginners
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash – The Descendants

BEST FIRST FEATURE (Award given to the director and producer)
Another Earth Director: Mike Cahill
Producers: Mike Cahill, Hunter Gray, Brit Marling, Nicholas Shumaker
In the Family Director: Patrick Wang
Producers: Robert Tonino, Andrew van den Houten, Patrick Wang
Margin Call Director: J.C. Chandor
Producers: Robert Ogden Barnum, Michael Benaroya, Neal Dodson, Joe Jenckes, Corey Moosa, Zachary Quinto
Martha Marcy May Marlene Director: Sean Durkin
Producers: Antonio Campos, Patrick Cunningham, Chris Maybach, Josh Mond
Natural Selection Director: Robbie Pickering
Producers: Brion Hambel, Paul Jensen

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Mike Cahill, Brit Marling Another Earth
J.C. Chandor – Margin Call
Patrick deWitt – Terri
Phil Johnston – Cedar Rapids
Will Reiser – 50/50

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD – Given to the best feature made for under $500,000. Award given to the writer, director, and producer. Executive Producers are not listed
Bellflower Writer/Director: Evan Glodell
Producers: Evan Glodell, Vincent Grashaw
Circumstance Writer/Director: Maryam Keshavarz
Producers: Karin Chien, Maryam Keshavarz, Melissa M. Lee
Hello Lonesome Writer/Director/Producer: Adam Reid
Pariah Writer/Director: Dee Rees
Producer: Nekisa Cooper
The Dynamiter Writer: Brad Inglesby
Director: Matthew Gordon
Producers: Kevin Abrams, Matthew Gordon, Merilee Holt, Art Jones, Mike Jones, Nate Tuck, Amile Wilson

BEST FEMALE LEAD
Lauren Ambrose – Think of Me
Rachael Harris – Natural Selection
Adepero Oduye – Pariah
Elizabeth Olsen – Martha Marcy May Marlene
Michelle Williams – My Week with Marilyn

BEST MALE LEAD
Demián Bichir – A Better Life
Jean Dujardin – The Artist
Ryan Gosling – Drive
Woody Harrelson – Rampart
Michael Shannon – Take Shelter

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Jessica Chastain – Take Shelter
Anjelica Huston – 50/50
Janet McTeer – Albert Nobbs
Harmony Santana – Gun Hill Road
Shailene Woodley – The Descendants

BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Albert Brooks – Drive
John Hawkes – Martha Marcy May Marlene
Christopher Plummer – Beginners
John C. Reilly – Cedar Rapids
Corey Stoll – Midnight in Paris

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Joel Hodge – Bellflower
Benjamin Kasulke – The Off Hours
Darius Khondji – Midnight in Paris
Guillaume Schiffman – The Artist
Jeffrey Waldron – The Dynamiter

BEST DOCUMENTARY (Award given to the director and producer)
An African Election Director/Producer: Jarreth Merz
Bill Cunningham New York Director: Richard Press
Producer: Philip Gefter
The Interrupters Director/Producer: Steve James
Producer: Alex Kotlowitz
The Redemption of General Butt Naked Director/Producers: Eric Strauss, Daniele Anastasion
We Were Here Director/Producer: David Weissman

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM (Award given to the director)
A Separation
(Iran) Director: Asghar Farhadi
Melancholia
(Denmark/Sweden/France/Germany) Director: Lars von Trier
Shame
(UK) Director: Steve McQueen
The Kid With a Bike
(Belgium/France/Italy) Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Tyrannosaur
(UK) Director: Paddy Considine

PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD – The 15th annual Piaget Producers Award honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources demonstrate the creativity, tenacity, and vision required to produce quality, independent films. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Piaget.
Chad Burris Mosquita y Mari
Sophia Lin Take Shelter
Josh Mond Martha Marcy May Marlene

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD – The 18th annual Someone to Watch Award recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant.
Simon Arthur Silver Tongues
Mark Jackson Without
Nicholas Ozeki Mamitas

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD – The 17th annual Truer Than Fiction Award is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition. The award includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant.
Heather Courtney Where Soldiers Come From
Danfung Dennis Hell and Back Again
Alma Har’el Bombay Beach

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD – (Given to one film’s director, casting director, and its ensemble cast)
Margin Call Director: J.C. Chandor
Casting Director: Tiffany Little Canfield, Bernard Telsey
Ensemble Cast: Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, Zachary Quinto, Kevin Spacey, Stanley Tucci

Danny Trejo to star in a movie called ‘Pendejo’

By Mack Chico

2011/03/16 at 12:00am

Movies

Danny Trejo to star in a movie called ‘Pendejo’

03.16.2011 | By Mack Chico |

Danny Trejo has joined the cast of “Pendejo,” a romantic comedy by writer/director Jairaj Walia, of Gr8 Dane Films.

Trejo (“Grindhouse,” “Machete,” “xXx”) plays the role of Pedro, the gangster father of the main character’s love interest, Jenny.

“Pendejo” which the filmmakers translate as “idiot,” but is far more vulgar, is about a spoiled party boy whose wealthy father orders to either take a low-level position at the family company or lose his inheritance.

Walia said that the movie addresses both the Indian and Latin cultures.

The cast includes Raja Fenske (Nickelodeon’s “Unfabulous”), Fernanda Romero (“The Eye”), Laksh Singh (“Little Fockers”), Marissa Caprielian (“Entourage”), Darlene Vazquetelles (“Kings of South Beach”) and Sevier Crespo (“Fast Lane”).

Bob Walia and Kim Walia are producing through Gr8 Dane. Crespo is producing through New Slant Productions.

‘El méxicano’ Guillermo Del Toro to do ‘Pinocchio 3D’

By Jack Rico

2011/02/17 at 12:00am

Movies

‘El méxicano’ Guillermo Del Toro to do ‘Pinocchio 3D’

02.17.2011 | By Jack Rico |

'El mÃ©xicano' Guillermo Del Toro to do 'Pinocchio 3D'

2011 seems to be the year of Hispanics in Hollywood. With so many new Spaniard and Latin American directors, actors and screenwriters getting play in Hollywood, it’s a good time to speak Spanish in the movie business.

One of the first, and perhaps most revered Mexican directors in the US movie space, Guillermo del Toro, is teaming up with The Jim Henson Company and Pathe to do a 3D stop motion animated adaptation of Pinocchio, according to Deadline.com.

Gris Grimly is set to co-direct with Mark Gustafson, and production will begin later this year. The concept was conceived by Del Toro, but Matthew Robbins wrote the script.

According to the site, this new version of Pinocchio, made famous by Disney, is aimed at an audience 10 years and up, though it will be a bit scarier.

“There has to be darkness in any fairy tale or children’s narrative work, something the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson and Walt Disney understood,” del Toro said. “We tend to call something Disney-fied, but a lot of people forget how powerfully disturbing the best animated Disney movies are, including those kids being turned into donkeys in Pinocchio. What we’re trying to do is present a Pinocchio that is more faithful to the take that Colodi wrote. That is more surreal and slightly darker than what we’ve seen before.”

For instance: “the Blue Fairy is really a dead girl’s spirit,” del Toro said. “Pinocchio has strange moments of lucid dreaming bordering on hallucinations, with black rabbits. The sperm whale that swallows Pinocchio was actually a giant dogfish, which allows for more classical scale and design. The many mishaps Pinocchio goes through include several near-death close calls, a lot more harrowing moments. The key with this is not making any of it feel gratuitous, because the story is integrated with moments of comedy and beauty. He’s one of the great characters, whose purity and innocence allows him to survive in this bleak landscape of robbers and thugs, emerging from the darkness with his soul intact.”

This isn’t the only thing the gifted Mexican director/producer is working on. Del Toro is about to embark on a project with James Cameron called At the Mountains of Madness, the R-rated $125 million 3D live action adaptation of the HP Lovecraft tale about the discovery by scientists of horrific aliens thawing in Antarctica. The film has Tom Cruise as the star and Del Toro expects to start this by May.

Del Toro has long been a stop motion fan. “I’ve had a special effects house for a decade in Mexico, and we were one of the first stop motion animated houses where a lot of influential animators trained,” he said.

Here are some concept pictures from the new Pinocchio film that Del Toro submitted to the site.

John Leguizamo to play ‘Cantinflas’ in biopic?

By Jack Rico

2009/01/13 at 12:00am

Movies

John Leguizamo to play ‘Cantinflas’ in biopic?

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.