Julio César Cedillo has a new role…

The 51-year-old Mexican-American actor will star in Chocolate Lizards, an indie dramedy based on Cole Thompson’s 1999 novel of the same name.

Cedillo will star opposite Rudy Pankow and Carrie-Anne Moss, as well as Oscar nominees Thomas Haden Church and Bruce Dern.

The project is currently in production in Texas.

The film centers on Erwin Vandeveer (Pankow), a Harvard-educated actor just recently fired from the first real acting job he’s ever had in New Orleans, who hits the road back to Los Angeles, only to have his car break down outside Buffalo Gap, Texas. There, he meets roughneck Merle Luskey (Church), who is about to lose his oil drilling operation in 30 days, unless he can come up with the money to pay off his bank note.

These two down-and-outers at the end of their ropes subsequently join forces with Faye (Moss), the manager of the local cafe and unofficial mayor of Buffalo Gap, in an unlikely scheme to avoid disaster and try to hit an oil bonanza before Merle’s time runs out. With a little comical cunning and a lot more luck, the two just may pull off a last-minute miracle.

Mark Lambert Bristol is directing the film from a script by Julie B. Denny.

Cedillo is best known for the title role in the 2005 film The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.