The Starz original series, which is set in 1950s-era Miami at the glamorous Miramar Playa Hotel, will premiere a week after the season finale of another Starz original series, Da Vinci’s Demons.
Here’s a look at the behind-the-scenes video for the show’s upcoming second season:
Set in 1959 Miami shortly after the Cuban Revolution, Magic City tells the story of Ike Evans (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the owner of the Miramar Playa, Miami’s most glamorous hotel. Evans is forced to make an ill-fated deal with Miami mob boss Ben Diamond (Danny Huston) to ensure the success of his glitzy establishment.
Along with Morales – who will play Carlos Ruiz, a former rebel who once fought beside Fidel Castro but now works to free Cuba from the man he once considered a brother – Mitch Glazer’s drama will see another newcomer (James Caan) and the promise of more blood spilled.
The show’s other Latino stars include Andy Garcia‘s daughter Dominik Garcia-Lorido and Yul Vazquez.
The 50-year-old Puerto Rican actor has been cast in CBS’ legal drama pilot The Advocates.
The David Nutter-directed project, which was written by Bruno Heller, revolves around lawyer Shannon Carter and ex-con Henry Bird who join forces as “victim advocates,” going to the very edge of the law to right wrongs and fight for the underdog.
Morales, best known for portraying Ritchie Valens’ troubled brother in the 1987 biopicLa Bamba, will play Rafael “Raffa” Cortez, an ambitious and somewhat Machiavellian district attorney.
Morales, who has a recurring role on the upcoming second season of Starz’s Magic City, has previously starred in Showtime’s Resurrection Blvd., NYPD Blueand the sci-fi seriesCaprica.
Martin Sheen will be searching for 9/11-related answers soon…
The 72-year-old half-Spanish actor will star opposite Woody Harrelson in September Morn, a drama based on the events on 9/11.
September Morn, which is said to be similar to the film Twelve Angry Men, will be directed by B.J. Davis.
The film centers on a group that revisits and questions the independent investigation into the events of September 11, 2001, when terrorists used commercial airliners to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The film’s co-stars include La Bamba’s Esai Morales, Ed Asner, John Heard, Daniel Sunjata and Judd Nelson.
Sheen is best known for his starring role on the presidency- and White House centric series The West Wing.
The 49-year-old Puerto Rican actor has signed to star in Starz‘s Miami-set period drama Magic City.
Set in 1959 Miami just after the Cuban Revolution, Magic City tells the story of Ike Evans (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the owner of Miami’s glitzy Miramar Playa hotel, who is forced to make a deal with local mob boss Ben Diamond (Danny Huston).
Morales, an NYPD Blue alum, will play Carlos Ruiz, a former rebel who once fought beside Castro but now works to free Cuba from the man he once considered a brother.
Morales—who rose to acclaim for his role as Ritchie Valens’ troubled brother in the 1987 biopic La Bamba—recently recurred on Fairly Legal and Caprica.
Filming on Season 2 of Magic City starts this week in Miami for a 2013 premiere.
Returning are creator/executive producer Mitch Glazer and cast members Morgan, Olga Kurylenko, Yul Vazquez, Dominik Garcia-Lorido and Elena Satine.
The 40-year-old Mexican singer/actress will be lending her voice to an upcoming television special featuring characters from Dora the Explorer.
Thalia will provide the voice of the mermaid’s mother in Nickelodeon’s Dora’s Rescue in Mermaid Kingdom, set to air Friday night.
The story centers on the efforts of Dora and Boots to help Maribel—a lost mermaid they encounter on the beach—get back to her mother in the Mermaid Kingdom.
“Dora is such an iconic and important Latina heroine, and I’m proud to now be a part of the show’s ever-growing legacy,” says Thalia, a mother of two. ““I was thrilled to play a role on Dora the Explorer, a show that has touched the lives of many children around the world including my own child.”
Dora, now voiced by 7-year-old Fatima Ptacek, is a 7-year-old bilingual Latina who explores an “imaginative, tropical world filled with jungles, beaches and rainforests.”
In its more than 10 year history on the air, the Emmy-winning show has featured guests like John Leguizamo, Cheech Marin, Ricardo Montalban, Esai Morales and Chita Rivera.
Zoë Saldaña has received an NAACP Image Award nod for playing a stone-cold assassin in Colombiana.
The 33-year-old half-Dominican/half-Puerto Rican American actress, currently at work on the latest Star Trek film, will face off against Pariah’sAdepero Oduye, The Help’s Emma Stone, Jumping the Broom’s Paula Patton and The Help’s Viola Davis at the 43rd Annual NAACP Image Awards.
Presented by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to honor outstanding people of color in film, television, music and literature. Members of the NAACP vote for their favorites in the 35 categories that make up the Image Awards.
The Help led the pack with eight nominations, including nods for Best Picture, writing and directing, as well as dominating the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories.
But Saldaña isn’t the only Hispanic celebrity receiving an Image Award nod. Here’s a look at the other Latino/a stars in the running:
Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture Laz Alonso – Jumping the Broom
Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series Tatyana Ali – Love That Girl!
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Sofia Vergara – Modern Family
Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special Esai Morales – We Have Your Husband
Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special Rosario Dawson – Five
Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series Tatyana Ali – The Young and the Restless
Outstanding Male Artist Bruno Mars
The Image Awards will be presented on February 17 on NBC.
For the complete list of nominees visit the Awards’ official site.
She’s received critical acclaim for her feature-film acting debut in “Gun Hill Road”… And, now Harmony Santana could be reaping the rewards too.
The 20-something transgender actress has received a Gotham Award “Breakthrough Actor” nomination for her spectacular performance in the coming out drama.
The film, which co-stars Esai Morales and Judy Reyes, centers around Vanessa (born as Michael), a shy male teenager trying to live openly as a girl while dealing with a disapproving ex-con father and supportive mother.
The half-Puerto Rican, half-Dominican actresses’ only previous acting experience was playing a Boy George look-alike in a high school production of the musical “The Wedding Singer.” But that didn’t stop the film’s director, Rashaad Ernesto Green, from selecting Santana for the hard-to-cast role.
“I looked at attractive gay males who might have had experience with drag to see if they might be able to portray the character,” recalled Green in a recent interview with The New York Times, who was seeking an actor who looked 16, could play a transgender character without what he called ‘significant female development’ and could convincingly convey a Hispanic background. “But they didn’t have the essence I was looking for. There’s a difference between someone who’s pretending to be female and someone who actually believes they are.”
But Green’s luck changed when he discovered Santana at the Queens gay pride parade.
“She said she was at the beginning of her transition, which was like, ‘Bingo,’” says Green.
Santana, who has only been living full-time as a woman since last year, was able to tap into her own experience of growing up in New York as a transgender teenager for the role.
“At one time I hated my father so much because he would always fight with my mother about me,” remembers Santana. “I would hear them through the cracks in the door that I shouldn’t be playing with my little sisters and doing girl things.”
“Gun Hill Road” premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in January and has been featured prominently on the gay film-festival circuit before opening commercially in New York City in August.
The Gotham Awards, which honor films produced outside the major studio system, will be handed out in New York on November 28.
