Morena Baccarin to Star in the Post-Apocalyptic Action Thriller “Elevation”

Posted on October 15, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Morena Baccarin is elevating her career…

The 43-year-old Brazilian actress will star opposite Anthony Mackie and Maddie Hasson in the post-apocalyptic action thriller Elevation.

George Nolfi will direct the film from Lyrical Media.

Brad Fuller is on board to produce with John Glenn and writing duo Kenny Ryan and Jacob Roman penning the script.

The film is billed as a high-concept, thematically driven action piece set in the Rocky Mountains. The plot is being kept under wraps, but the story is said to follow a single father and two women who must venture from the safety of their home to face monstrous creatures in order to save the life of a child.

Baccarin recently co-starred with Pierce Brosnan in Fast Charlie, a Phillip Noyce thriller. Her other credits include the Deadpool franchise, Spy and Greenland.

Stephanie Beatriz to Star in Peacock’s Live-Action Film Adaptation of “Twisted Metal” Video Game

Posted on May 15, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Stephanie Beatriz is getting things twisted…

The 41-year-old Colombian and Bolivian American actress will star in Peacock’s Twisted Metal, the live-action video game adaptation starring Anthony Mackie.

Beatriz will play the character of Quiet, a ferocious, badass car thief who acts purely on instinct – you couldn’t stop her any more than a manhole could stop a volcano. Coming from a community that oppressed her into silence, Quiet’s wish is to find her place in this dark, chaotic world. But when she becomes clouded by her need for revenge, Quiet forms an unlikely, antagonistic bond with John Doe (Mackie).

From Cobra Kai writer Michael Jonathan Smith, Twisted Metal is a half-hour, high-octane action comedy, based on an original take by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick about a motor-mouthed outsider offered a chance at a better life, but only if he can successfully deliver a mysterious package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland. With the help of a trigger-happy car thief, he’ll face savage marauders driving vehicles of destruction and other dangers of the open road, including a deranged clown who drives an all too familiar ice cream truck.

Alongside Mackie and showrunner Smith, executive producers also include Kitao Sakurai—who will also direct multiple episodes—Reese, Wernick, Will Arnett, and Marc Forman via their Electric Avenue production company, Jason Spire of Inspire Entertainment, Peter Principato of Artists First, Asad Qizilbash, and Carter Swan from PlayStation Productions, Hermen Hulst, Head of PlayStation Studios.

The series is co-produced by Sony Pictures Television, PlayStation Productions, and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.

Beatriz most recently made a splash as the voice of Mirabel in Disney’s Encanto. Prior to that, she starred in Matthew Dunster’s hit theatrical production 2:22 on London’s West End and also played Carla in the Warner Bros. film adaptation of Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical In The Heights.

Beatriz is best known for playing fan-favorite Detective Rosa Diaz in the NBC comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine throughout the show’s eight-season run.

Danny Ramirez to Star in A24’s “The Stars at Noon”

Posted on January 15, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Danny Ramirez is seeing stars…

The 29-year-old Colombian and Mexican American actor has joined the cast of Claire Denis’ next film at A24, The Stars at Noon.

Ramirez will star opposite Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn in the film.

Based on the novel by Denis Johnson, the story is set in 1984 during the Nicaraguan Revolution and follows a mysterious English businessman and headstrong American journalist who strike up a passionate romance. They soon become embroiled in a dangerous labyrinth of lies and conspiracies and are forced to try and escape the country, with only each other to trust and rely on.

Denis will direct and also adapted the script with Lea Mysius and Andrew Litvack. RT Features and Curiosa Films are producing the film, which was originally announced during AFM 2020.

Ramirez is fresh off the success of the Disney+ Marvel series, The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, where he co-starred opposite Anthony Mackie, playing Marvel character, Joaquin Torres.

The actor will next appear opposite Tom Cruise in Paramount’s highly anticipated Top Gun: Maverick.

Ramirez recently completed production on the 20th Century Studios for Hulu suspense/thriller, No Exit and also has the Netflix’s dual-timeline drama Plus/Minus opposite Lili Reinhart.

Pedro Pascal Among the Narrators for Season 1 of Netflix’s Nature Series “Animal”

Posted on October 13, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Pedro Pascal is embracing his animal side…

Season one of Animal, a nature series from Plimsoll Productions will premiere on Netflix November 10, with the 46-year-old Chilean actor among the narrators.

The show follows eight families of the natural world, including a mother lioness, a wild dog family, a kangaroo joey and a young giant pacific octopus.

Each episode has a high-profile narrator who will bring to life the subjects, including Pascal, Bryan Cranston, Rashida Jones and Rebel Wilson.

The project was almost entirely shot during the pandemic, meaning the team used local camera operators to film in countries that were inaccessible due to travel restrictions.

Series two of the show has already been greenlit by Netflix and will feature narrators including Andy Serkis, Anthony Mackie, David Harbour and Uzo Aduba and will focus on dolphins, bears, birds of prey and apes. That season will premiere in 2022.

AGC Studios to Fully Finance Andres Baiz’s Thriller Panopticon, Starring Shailene Woodley

Posted on March 1, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Andres Baiz’s latest film is moving forward…

AGC Studios has announced plans to fully finance Panopticon, the 46-year-old Colombian film director’s thriller.

The film is set to star Shailene Woodley, Anthony Mackie and Jacob Latimore.

Scott Free and AGC are producing, with AGC International and CAA Media Finance launching worldwide sales.

Baiz’s film will shoot in New Mexico this summer.

In the Emily Jerome-scripted thriller, Woodley plays Chase, an ambitious young Wall Street trader who seizes upon a hot investment opportunity in PCC Correctional, a private prison group racking up huge profits. She soon uncovers an operation rife with violence and malfeasance. Forced to choose between profiting from a gold mine career opportunity and doing the right thing, Chase teams up with a local prison guard (Mackie) to take on a culture of corrupt boardrooms, white supremacists, prison gangs and crooked correctional officers, to break apart the system that’s made her a rising star.

Baiz has been directing episodes of Netflix’s Narcos and Narcos: Mexico.

Fernanda Valadez’s “Identifying Features” Wins Gotham Awards’ Inaugural Best International Feature Award

Posted on January 13, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Fernanda Valadez is in a New York state of mind…

The Gotham Film and Media Institute’s 30th annual Gotham Awards have been revealed virtually, with the Mexican filmmaker taking home a prize.

Valadez’s critically acclaimed Identifying Features (Sin Señas Particulares) picked up the inaugural award for Best International Feature.

The drama premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic and the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Best Screenplay.

Co-written by Valadez and Astrid Rondero, the film centers on the many immigrants who often go missing or die on their journeys. Most of the main characters are mothers trying to find their children.

IFP Executive Director Jeffrey Sharp welcomed the virtual audience and the night featured a handful of in-person presenters including Renee Elise Goldsberry, Cristin Milioti, Hunter Schafer, Padma Lakshmi, Michael Shannon and Noma Dumezweni, as well as remote presenters such as Zachary Quinto, Lupita Nyong’o, Anthony Mackie, Rebecca Hall and Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre.

Here’s the full list of winners below.

BEST FEATURE: Nomadland
BEST DOCUMENTARY – TIE A Thousand Cuts & Time
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE: Identifying Features
BINGHAM RAY BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR AWARD: Andrew Patterson, The Vast of Night
BEST SCREENPLAY – TIE: The Forty-Year-Old Version, Radha Blank & Fourteen, Dan Sallitt
BEST ACTOR: Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
BEST ACTRESS: Nicole Beharie, Miss Juneteenth
BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR: Kingsley Ben-Adir, One Night in Miami…
BREAKTHROUGH SERIES – LONG FORMAT (40-PLUS MINUTES PER EPISODE): Watchmen
BREAKTHROUGH SERIES – SHORT FORMAT (LESS THAN 40 MINUTES PER EPISODE): I May Destroy You
ACTRESS TRIBUTE: Viola Davis
ACTOR TRIBUTE: Chadwick Boseman
ENSEMBLE TRIBUTE: The cast of The Trial of the Chicago 7: Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jeremy Strong, Mark Rylance, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Alex Sharp, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Caitlin Fitzgerald, Alice Kremelberg, and Ben Shenkman.
DIRECTOR’S TRIBUTE: Steve McQueen
INDUSTRY TRIBUTE: Ryan Murphy
MADE IN N.Y. AWARD: Jeffrey Wright
GOTHAM AUDIENCE AWARD: Nomadland

Lela Loren to Star Opposite Kevin Hart in Sony’s Action Comedy “Man From Toronto”

Posted on October 28, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Lela Loren is Toronto bound.

The 40-year-old half-Mexican American actress has joined the cast of Sony’s action comedy Man From Toronto.

The film stars Kevin Hart, Woody Harrelson and Kaley Cuoco.

The film centers around a case of mistaken identity after the world’s deadliest assassin, known as the “man from Toronto,” and a stranger, played by Hart, run into each other at an Airbnb. Chaos soon ensues as the assassin’s world comes crashing down on Hart.

Patrick Hughes is on board to helm. Robbie Fox and Chris Bremner wrote the script from a story he conceived with Jason Blumenthal.

The film is set to debut on September 21, 2021.

Loren will star on the third season of the Starz series American Gods from Neil Gaiman, which will start airing in January.

Most recently she starred opposite Anthony Mackie in Netflix’s second season of Altered Carbon. She also has the Halle Berry film Bruised, which Netflix just acquired at Toronto.

Netflix to Release Season Two of Lela Loren’s “Altered Carbon” in February

Posted on January 22, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Lela Loren’s Alteredlife is coming to light next month…

Netflix will launch season two of its ambitious sci-fi series Altered Carbon, starring the 39-year-old half-Mexican actress, on February 27.

In addition to Loren, who portrays Danica Harlan in season two, the series also stars Anthony Mackie, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Simone Missick, Chris Conner, Dina Shihabi and Torben Liebrecht. Will Yun Leeand James Saitoguest star.

Based on Richard K. Morgan’s classic sci-fi novels, Altered Carbonis from Skydance Television.

The synopsis from producers: “Set more than 300 years in the future in a society transformed by new technology: consciousness can be digitized; human bodies are interchangeable; death is no longer permanent. Season Two of the sophisticated and compelling sci-fi drama finds Takeshi Kovacs (Mackie), the lone surviving soldier of a group of elite interstellar warriors, continuing his centuries old quest to find his lost love Quellcrist Falconer (Goldsberry).

Loren is best known for her leading role as Angela “Angie” Valdes on the Starz television series, Power.

Lela Loren to Star on Netflix’s “Altered Carbon”

Posted on August 28, 2019 by Tom Castaneda

Lela Loren is alteringher life…

The 39-year-old half-Mexican American actress and Power star has joined the second season of Netflix‘s sci-fi drama Altered Carbon.

Loren, who played Angela Valdes on the Starzseries, will play Danica Harlan, the charming and ambitious governor of planet Harlan’s World. Her character has the support of the people, but keeps an uneasy grip on the political players who surround her.

She joins new cast additions including Simone Missick, who plays Trepp, Dina Shihabi, as Dig 301, Torben Liebrecht as Colonel Carrera and James Saito, as Tanaseda Hideki, in the second season of the drama as well Anthony Mackie, who plays the lead, Takeshi Kovacs.

Renée Elise Goldsberry and Chris Connerwill also reprise their roles as Quellcrist Falconer and Poe, respectively, ending speculation whether any Season 1 cast members would return for Season 2.

Based on the classic science fiction novels by Richard K. Morgan, Altered Carbon, from Skydance Television, takes place over 300 years in the future, where society has been transformed by new technology, consciousness can be digitized, human bodies are interchangeable and death is no longer permanent.

The eight-part drama, which was filmed in Vancouver, will launch in 2020.

Saldaña’s “Haven” to Get Special 10th Anniversary Presentation at Cayfilm

Posted on June 23, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

It’s a special anniversary for Zoë Saldaña …

Haven, the 2006 thriller from Frank E. Flowers that featured the 38-year-old half-Dominican/half-Puerto Rican American actress, Orlando Bloom and Anthony Mackie, will get a special tenth anniversary presentation at Cayfilm, the second annual Cayman International Film Festival.

Saldana, Mackie and co-star Victor Rasuk are among those who will be on hand for the reunion, as will Flowers, who is a Caymanian filmmaker.

Flowers will debut a never-before-seen director’s cut of the movie at the fest, which is set to run July 1-4.

Festival director Tony Mark said the reunion and special screening is intended to inspire more young Caymanians to get involved with film, as well as draw attention to the need for the CayFilm Cayman Media Academy to help train local up-and-coming filmmakers.

“Haven is an important part of the Cayman film community,” said Mark. “Frank has inspired an entire generation of young Caymanian filmmakers, and we are looking forward to welcoming him and the cast to the festival.”

Among the event’s other programs will be a spotlight on Star Wars, with Robert Watts, who worked on the films, set to receive the burgeoning fest’s lifetime achievement award, while below-the-line craftsmen such as Oscar winner Ben Burtt also will be in attendance.

Also set to appear at the festival is Wesley Snipes who will present the best feature film award at the closing night ceremony on July 4.

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