The Puerto Rican actor will star in Clint Eastwood’s Juror No. 2 at Warner Bros.
In addition to Serrano, new cast additions include Amy Aquino, Adrienne C. Moore, Cedric Yarbrough and Chikako Fukuyama.
The film follows Justin Kemp, played by Nicholas Hoult, who while serving as a juror in a high-profile murder trial, finds himself struggling with a serious moral dilemma — one he could use to sway the jury verdict and potentially convict–or free–the wrong killer.
Eastwood is producing under his Malpaso banner in addition to directing off of Jonathan Abrams’ screenplay.
The film is currently shooting in Georgia.
Also part of the ensemble are Toni Collette (prosecutor), Gabriel Basso (accused), Zoey Deutch (Kemp’s wife), Leslie Bibb (juror), Chris Messina (public defender), and Kiefer Sutherland (Kemp’s AA sponsor).
Serrano’s credits include the series Gordita Chronicleson Max and a recurring role on Fantasy Islandon Fox.
Pedro Pascal is preparing to work with a Spanish living legend…
The 47-year-old Chilean actor will star in Oscar-winning director Pedro Almodóvar’s upcoming short Western A Strange Way of the Life.
Pascal will star opposite Ethan Hawke in the project.
Almodovar teased details of the storyline in a note put out by El Deseo, the Madrid-based film company he runs with his brother Agustín Almodóvar.
“A man rides a horse across the desert that separates him from Bitter Creek. He comes to visit Sheriff Jake. Twenty-five years earlier, both the sheriff and Silva, the rancher who rides out to meet him, worked together as hired gunmen,” he wrote. “Silva visits him with the excuse of reuniting with his friend from his youth, and they do indeed celebrate their meeting, but the next morning Sheriff Jake tells him that the reason for his trip is not to go down the memory lane of their old friendship…. I must say no more so as not to give away all the surprises of the script,” he added.
It will be filmed in the Tabernas desert, in Spain’s south-eastern province of Almeria, in a village built 50 years ago by Sergio Leone to shoot his dollar trilogy with Clint Eastwood.
The 66-year-old Cuban actor will star in the courtroom drama Miranda’s Victimfrom director Michelle Danner, with production on the project underway in New Jersey.
Garcia will star opposite Abigail Breslin, Luke Wilson and Donald Sutherland in the film, which is written by J. Craig Stiles and George Kolber.
The film will tell the true story of Trish Weir (Breslin), who in 1963 was kidnapped and brutally raped by Ernesto Miranda. Committed to putting her assailant in prison, Trish’s life is destroyed by America’s legal system as she triggers a law that transforms the nation.
Wilson will play Lawrence Turoff, the country prosecutor that convinces Trish to testify and helps her bring her aggressor to justice, with Garcia as public defender Alvin Moore, who takes on Miranda’s case, and Sutherland as Judge Wren, who convicts Miranda for the rape of Weir.
Danner and Kolber are producing alongside Valerie Debler, Brian Drillinger and Alexandra Guarnieri.
The production company involved is Navesink River Productions.
“The first time I read George Kolber’s riveting script and learned about Trish’s experience, it moved and inspired me,” said Danner. “”Miranda’s Victim” puts us at the intersection between a brutal rape case and and a national movement for civil liberties.”
Garcia is an Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy nominee whose recent film credits include Guy Ritchie’s Jason Statham actioner Wrath of Man; the comedy Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, with Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo and Jamie Dornan; the romantic drama Words on Bathroom Walls, with Charlie Plummer and Taylor Russell; Clint Eastwood’s crime drama, The Mule; Sacha Gervasi’s Emmy-nominated TV movie My Dinner with Hervéfor HBO; Ol Parker’s Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again; and the comedy Book Club, with Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda and Candice Bergen.
The actor’s credits on the television side include Rebel, Flipped and Ballers.
He’ll next be seen in Warner Bros. and HBO Max’s Father of the Bride; the romantic drama What About Love, with Sharon Stone; and Lionsgate’s The Expendables 4.
The 52-year-old Spanish Oscar-winning actor will be honored with the prestigious Maltin Modern Master Award at the 37th annual edition of the Santa Barbara Film Festival.
Bardem will be feted alongside his Being the Ricardos co-star Nicole Kidman on Thursday, March 10 when they’ll engage with veteran film historian and critic Leonard Maltin for an in-person conversation about their careers leading up to this year’s performances as Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball in Aaron Sorkin’s acclaimed film from Amazon Studios.
Bardem and Kidman recently received individual SAG Award nominations in the lead actor and actress categories.
Bardem and Kidman, who have never before worked together, previously won Oscars for No Country for Old Men(2007) and The Hours (2002), respectively. Each has a long career of acclaimed performances.
“Nicole Kidman continues to challenge and reinvent herself year after year. Javier Bardem’s talent is a gift to the world. Only in Hollywood could these actors find themselves playing America’s all time favorite TV couple. It’s cause for celebration,” Maltin said.
Santa Barbara International Film Festival
The Modern Master Award was established in 1995 and is the highest accolade presented by SBIFF. Created to honor an individual who has enriched our culture through accomplishments in the motion picture industry, it was re-named the Maltin Modern Master Award in 2015 in honor of longtime SBIFF moderator and renowned film critic Leonard Maltin.
Past recipients include Bill Murray, Brad Pitt, Glenn Close, Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton, Bruce Dern, Ben Affleck, Christopher Plummer, Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, Clint Eastwood, Cate Blanchett, Will Smith, George Clooney and Peter Jackson.
This is the first time a pair of actors will be honored together.
Other Santa Barbara tributes previously announced include Benedict Cumberbatch with the Vanguard Award, King Richard stars Will Smith and Aunjanue Ellis for Outstanding Performers of the Year, Kristen Stewart for the American Riviera Award, and collectively named for Virtuoso Awards are West Side Story’sAriana DeBose, CODAactors Emilia Jones and Troy Kotsur, Red Rocket’s Simon Rex, Licorice Pizza’sAlana Haim, and Saniyya Sidney from King Richard.
The 37th Santa Barbara Film Festival is set to take place in-person March 2-12. Official events including screenings, filmmaker Q&As, industry panels and celebrity tributes will be held throughout the city including at the historic Arlington Theatre.
Cassandra Sanchez-Navarro is ready to crossover stateside…
The 30-year-old Mexican actress and telenovela star has signed with Buchwald and Anonymous Content for representation in the United States.
Sanchez-Navarro starred in the romantic comedy Cindy La Regia, a film that went on to become the most successful film in her native Mexico in 2020.
She most recently appeared in the Pantaya release El Peligro En Tu Miranda, currently available for viewing on streaming platforms.
Up next, she will appear in two films: Malcriados and Enfermo Amor opening in Mexico later this year.
Other credits include appearances in Netflix’s Sense 8 and El Dragon: Return of the Warrior for Univision and Televisa.
Sanchez-Navarro was classically trained at LA’s Lee Strasberg Academy and New York American Musical and Dramatic Academy, before going to London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
She’s a fifth-generation actor and granddaughter of Manolo Fabregas, often referred to as ‘The Man of Theater’, and the first Mexican to perform on Broadway, starring opposite legends including Shirley MacLaine and Clint Eastwood.
She continues to be represented by manager Prensa Danna in Mexico.
Eastwood, a multi-Oscar winner will star in and direct the feature based on N. Richard Nash’s novel.
The film will hit theaters and HBO Max day-and-date.
Eastwood stars as a one-time rodeo star and washed-up horse breeder who, in 1978, takes a job from an ex-boss to bring the man’s young son home and away from his alcoholic mom. Crossing rural Mexico on their back way to Texas, the unlikely pair faces an unexpectedly challenging journey, during which the world-weary horseman may find his own sense of redemption through teaching the boy what it means to be a good man.
The Mexican actor will make his English-language feature film debut starring opposite Clint Eastwood in Warner Bros.’ Cry Macho, which Eastwood will also direct.
Natalia Traven, Dwight Yoakam, Horacio Garcia Rojas and Fernanda Urrejola are also on board.
Eastwood has shown a knack for finding fresh new talent to share the screen with over the years including his 2008 drama Gran Torino, when he tapped newcomer Bee Vang as his co-star.
The production is currently wrapping filming in New Mexico.
Based on the underlying book written by N. Richard Nash and a screenplay written by Nash and Nick Schenk, Cry Macho stars Eastwood as a one-time rodeo star and washed-up horse breeder who, in 1978, takes a job from an ex-boss to bring the man’s young son home and away from his alcoholic mom. Crossing rural Mexico on their back way to Texas, the unlikely pair faces an unexpectedly challenging journey, during which the world-weary horseman may find his own sense of redemption through teaching the boy what it means to be a good man.
While this is Minett’s U.S. debut, he has had roles in a handful of Mexican television shows including Como dice el dicho. Veteran actor-singer Yoakam is best known for roles in Panic Room, Sling Bladeand most recently Logan Lucky. Traven was most recently seen on the AMC series Soulmates, and Rojas was recently seen in Netflix’s Narcos: Mexico.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has released its annual list of invitations to join the organization, with the 26-year-old Mexican actress and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Indigenous Peoples among the 819 extended an invite.
Aparicio, one of Timemagazine’s100 most influential people in the world in 2019,earned an Oscar nod in the Best Actress category for her performance in Alfonso Cuarón‘s 2018 Spanish-language drama Roma. With the nomination for her actig debut, she became the first Indigenous American woman and the second Mexican woman to receive a Best Actress Oscar nomination.
But Aparcio isn’t the only Latino/a to make the list…
Other invitees in the Actors branch include Bobby Cannavale, who appeared in The Irishman, Overboard’s Eva Longoria, Knives Out star Ana de Armas and Gringo actor Yul Vazquez.
Invitees in the Music branch include Andrea Guerra (Hotel Rwanda) and Cuban-American jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, who worked on the music for Clint Eastwood’s films Richard Jewell and The Mule.
The Directors branch sent out invitations to Latino filmmakers Icíar Bolláin (Spanish), Felipe Cazals (Mexican), Sebastián Cordero (Ecuadorian), Luis Estrada (Mexican), Alejandro Landes (Colombian-Ecuadorian),Jorge Alí Triana (Colombian) and Andrés Wood (Chilean).
This year’s new class demonstrates The Academy’s commitment to erasing the stigma of not being inclusive, particularly in terms of women, international members and underrepresented ethnic/racial communities.
The organization reports this year’s class breakdown is 49% international, 45% women, and 36% underrepresented ethnic/racial.
The overwhelming number of those invited to join the Academy end up accepting.
The total active membership in 2019 was 8,946, with 8,733 eligible to vote. Total membership including active, voting and retired was 9,794. Today’s additions will take the membership count past the 10,000 mark.
AMPAS says members can voluntarily disclose their race/ethnicity, sex or can choose “prefer not to.” So, demo stats may not be 100% accurate. AMPAS also “recognizes and respects” the personal choice in identification, but doesn’t track LGBTQ+ or differently abled, although a source says, while protecting privacy and not forcing answers, they are “working towards it.” In other words this is no longer your father’s Academy.
“We take great pride in the strides we have made in exceeding our initial inclusion goals set back in 2016, but acknowledge the road ahead is a long one,” said Academy CEO Dawn Hudson. “We are committed to staying the course.”
“The Academy is delighted to welcome these distinguished fellow travelers in the motion picture arts and sciences. We have always embraced extraordinary talent that reflects the rich variety of our global film community, and never more so than now,” said Academy President David Rubin.
Here’s a look at some of this year’s Latino invitees:
Actors Yalitza Aparicio – “Roma” Bobby Cannavale – “The Irishman,” “The Station Agent” Ana de Armas – “Knives Out,” “Blade Runner 2049” Eva Longoria – “Overboard,” “Harsh Times” Yul Vazquez – “Gringo,” “Last Flag Flying”
Casting Directors Libia Batista – “Eres Tú Papá?,” “Viva” Javier Braier – “The Two Popes,” “Wild Tales” Eva Leira – “Pain and Glory,” “Biutiful” Yesi Ramirez – “The Hate U Give,” “Moonlight” Yolanda Serrano – “Pain and Glory,” “Biutiful”
Directors Icíar Bolláin – “Even the Rain,” “Take My Eyes” Felipe Cazals – “El Año de la Peste,” “Canoa: A Shameful Memory” Sebastián Cordero – “Europa Report,” “Crónicas” Luis Estrada – “The Perfect Dictatorship,” “Herod’s Law” Alejandro Landes – “Monos,” “Porfirio” Jorge Alí Triana – “Bolívar Soy Yo,” “A Time to Die” Andrés Wood – “Araña,” “Violeta Went to Heaven”
Documentary Cristina Amaral – “Um Filme de Verão (A Summer Film),” “Person” Violeta Ayala – “Cocaine Prison,” “The Bolivian Case” Julia Bacha – “Naila and the Uprising,” “Budrus” Almudena Carracedo – “The Silence of Others,” “Made in L.A.” Paola Castillo – “Beyond My Grandfather Allende,” “Genoveva” Paz Encina – “Memory Exercises,” “Paraguayan Hammock” Mariana Oliva – “The Edge of Democracy,” “Piripkura” Iván Osnovikoff – “Los Reyes,” “La Muerte de Pinochet (The Death of Pinochet)” Tiago Pavan – “The Edge of Democracy,” “Olmo and the Seagull” Bettina Perut – “Los Reyes,” “La Muerte de Pinochet (The Death of Pinochet)” Marta Rodriguez – “Our Voice of Earth, Memory and Future,” “Campesinos (Peasants)”
Executives Ozzie Areu Barbara Peiro Frank Rodriguez Mimi Valdes
Film Editors Alejandro Carrillo Penovi – “Heroic Losers,” “The Clan” Alex Marquez – “Snowden,” “Savages”
Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Mari Paz Robles – “I Dream in Another Language,” “Cantinflas” David Ruiz Gameros – “Tear This Heart Out,” “Amores Perros” Susana Sánchez – “The Liberator,” “Goya’s Ghosts”
Marketing and Public Relations Inma Carbajal-Fogel Emmanuelle Castro Fernando Garcia Dustin M. Sandoval
Music Andrea Guerra – “The Pursuit of Happyness,” “Hotel Rwanda” Arturo Sandoval – “Richard Jewell,” “The Mule”
Producers Edher Campos – “Sonora, the Devil’s Highway,” “The Golden Dream” Nicolas Celis – “Roma,” “Tempestad” Alex Garcia – “Kong: Skull Island,” “Desierto” Enrique López Lavigne – “The Impossible,” “Sex and Lucia” Álvaro Longoria – “Everybody Knows,” “Finding Altamira” Mónica Lozano – “I Dream in Another Language,” “Instructions Not Included” Gabriela Maire – “Las Niñas Bien (The Good Girls),” “La Caridad (Charity)” Luis Manso – “Champions,” “Binta and the Great Gabriela Rodríguez – “Roma,” “Gravity” Mar Targarona – “Secuestro (Boy Missing),” “The Orphanage” Luis Urbano – “Letters from War,” “Tabu”
Production Design Sandra Cabriada – “Instructions Not Included,” “The Mexican” Estefanía Larraín – “A Fantastic Woman,” “Neruda”
Short Films and Feature Animation José David Figueroa García – “Perfidia,” “Ratitas” Oscar Grillo – “Monsters, Inc.,” “Monsieur Pett” Otto Guerra – “City of Pirates,” “Wood & Stock: Sexo, Orégano e Rock’n’Roll” Isabel Herguera – “Winter Love,” “Under the Pillow” Summer Joy Main-Muñoz – “Don’t Say No,” “La Cerca” Juan Pablo Zaramella – “Luminaris,” “The Glove”
Sound David Esparza – “The Magnificent Seven,” “The Equalizer”
Visual Effects Leandro Estebecorena – “The Irishman,” “Kong: Skull Island”
Members-at-Large Daniel Molina Carlos Morales Jesse Torres
The Latina singer/songwriter has released the latest track from her album, 45, “They Ain’t Gonna See Me Coming: An American Western.” And she’s sharing the noir-flavored video exclusively on Billboard.com.
Lopez, who recently relocated to Nashville from Houston, opened up about the song’s first-person perspective.
“I’m a big fan of storytelling, and I loveJohnny Cash‘s murder ballad kind of thing,” she tells Billboard. “I just gave a lot of thought to what is it that’s going on in people’s brains? What kind of state of mind do you have to be in to take it upon yourself to go murder your neighbors? You make all this effort to plan and plot and take out people’s lives. What would make someone make that kind of plan? I think it’s so dark and it’s weird ’cause you’re saying these things, and it seems like it’s coming from you.”
The song’s video, meanwhile, juxtaposes shots of Lopez performing with gritty footage of the presumed killer preparing for action.
“It shows the attentiveness and the coldness in which people finish out their plans,” Lopez explains. “I don’t think anybody can get out of the song that I’m celebrating it. I think of it like when you hear Johnny Cash say, ‘I shot a man in Reno to watch him die.’ I think there’s kind of touching the sun aspect to it.”
Lopez has her own take on contemporary gun violence too. As “They Won’t See Me Coming’s” subtitle indicates, she considers it a manifestation of Western film and literary culture, the shoot-first philosophy that made stars out of the likes of John Wayne, Gary Cooperand Clint Eastwood.
“This is a revered kind of thing; The good guys andthe bad guys ride into town and take people’s lives,” Lopez explains. “People think that’s so awesome, but actually it has consequences, and we’re seeing this now. These guys do think they’re the good guys, the white supremacists who roll into churches, even the folks who did the San Bernardino shooting or the guy who went down to the Orlando nightclub … They had in their minds they were doing something righteous. It’s bizarre and it’s out of hand, but it doesn’t feel that far away from what we glorify in those [Western] movies.”
“They Ain’t Gonna See Me Coming” is one of several socially conscious songs on 45, which came out May 31 — titled for the age when she began writing its eight tracks — and marked a sea change for Lopez, topically. “I think of it as a social commentary album,” says Lopez, who performed a show for the ACLU this year.
The new focus has grown on Lopez, and she says she’s looking forward to playing the songs more on the road during the charged election year of 2020.
“This is my first time ever being this way,” Lopez says. “That album just rolled out of me. I think I’m finding my place in the music, in the social commentary and in the political arena. I don’t think my songs are very political; I try to tell these stories on purpose. If you live in Nashville long enough you end up rubbing elbows with some really amazing, Grammy Award-winning artists. One of them said he thought there was a lot more life in 45— not the president, but my album. And I like that.”
The 44-year-old Mexican film director has sealed a deal to direct Sony Pictures’ faith-based drama Miracles From Heaven.
Riggen’s project is an adaptation of Miracles From Heaven: A Sick Little Girl, Her Journey to Heaven, and the Lives Forever Changed, the book by Christy Beam that will go on sale April 14.
Beam’s memoir centers on her daughter, who miraculously overcame an incurable, life-threatening digestive disorder. After she was dramatically rescued from a near-death experience, a stunning series of miracles unfolded that left her family, her medical doctors and community baffled. Beam lived in Texas when the incidents occurred, and her family belongs to the Alsbury Baptist Church.
Randy Brown, who wrote Clint Eastwood‘s Trouble With the Curve, penned the script.
The studio is expected to release the film in spring 2016 through its TriStar Pictures releasing label, the same label that released the faith-based hit Heaven Is for Real.
Riggen directed the critically acclaimed film Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna), as well as the Disney Channel movie Lemonade Mouth.
She most recently helmed the upcoming filmThe 33, which tells of the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped underground for 69 days and is based on the book Deep Down Dark written by Hector Tobar.
In addition to Serrano, new cast additions include Amy Aquino, Adrienne C. Moore, Cedric Yarbrough and Chikako Fukuyama.
