Patricia Cardoso Elected to Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors

Posted on June 10, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Patricia Cardoso is ready to help govern…

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced its 2024-25 Board of Governors, with the Colombian filmmaker among those earning a seat.

Cardoso, best known for iconic film Real Women Have Curves, is among the list of new first-time governors.

In 2020, the award-winning filmmaker became the first Latina director to be included in the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress after her groundbreaking film “Real Women Have Curves” was added to the registry.

She was elected to the Directors Branch.

Jennifer Fox, who has produced the past several Governors Awards ceremonies, was elected governor of the Producers Branch.

Leaving the board from those positions are current Directors Branch Governor Susanne Bier and Producers Governor Jennifer Todd.

Other first-timers named today are K.K. Barrett for Production Designers, Chris Tashima for Short Films and Andy Nelson for the Sound Branch. Returning to the board after a hiatus is Lois Burwell from Makeup and Hairstylists branch.

Here are the incumbent governors re-elected to the 2024-25 board:

Rita Wilson, Actors Branch
Kim Taylor-Coleman, Casting Directors Branch
Paul Cameron, Cinematographers Branch
Eduardo Castro, Costume Designers Branch
Jean Tsien, Documentary Branch
Pam Abdy, Executives Branch
Terilyn A. Shropshire, Film Editors Branch
Laura C. Kim, Marketing and Public Relations Branch
Lesley Barber, Music Branch
Brooke Breton, Visual Effects Branch
Howard A. Rodman, Writers Branch

They will join returning governors Wendy Aylsworth, Dion Beebe, Howard Berger, Jason Blum, Rob Bredow, Ruth E. Carter, Megan Colligan, Paul Debevec, Peter Devlin, David I. Dinerstein, Ava DuVernay, Linda Flowers, Charles Fox, DeVon Franklin, Rodrigo García, Richard Gibbs, Donna Gigliotti, Jinko Gotoh, Chris Hegedus, Richard Hicks, Lynette Howell Taylor, Kalina Ivanov, Simon Kilmurry, Ellen Kuras, Marlee Matlin, Hannah Minghella, Daniel Orlandi, Missy Parker, Lou Diamond Phillips, Jason Reitman, Nancy Richardson, Stephen Rivkin, Eric Roth, Dana Stevens, Mark P. Stoeckinger, Marlon West, Janet Yang and Debra Zane.

As a result of this election, the 55-member Board comprises 53% women and 27% belonging to an underrepresented racial or ethnic group.

The Academy has 19 branches, each represented by three governors, except for the recently established Animation Branch, represented by two governors; the recently established Short Films Branch, represented by one governor; and the Production and Technology Branch, represented by one governor. Governors, including the board-appointed governors-at-large, may serve up to two three-year terms (consecutive or non-consecutive), followed by a two-year hiatus, after which eligibility renews for up to two additional three-year terms for a lifetime maximum of 12 years.

Miguel Cazarez Mora to Star in “The Black Phone” Sequel

Posted on December 4, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Miguel CazaMora has answered the call…

The Mexican American actor will star in the Black Phone 2, the sequel to the hit 2022 Blumhouse–Crooked Highway Production–Universal horror film. A theatrical release is set for June 27, 2025.

In addition to Mora, who in his Hollywood debut starred as Robin in The Black Phone, will be joined by Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw and Jeremy Davies are set to return.

The first film, directed by Scott Derrickson and co-written by Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill racked up over $161M worldwide, becoming a sleeper hit in a rebounding summer last year from the Covid-19 pandemic. The film also made Deadline’s list of most profitable movies last year with an estimated net of $68M.

The duo are back penning Black Phone 2 and are producing with Blumhouse’s Jason Blum.

In the first movie, a 13-year old boy, who is abducted by a child killer in a suburban neighborhood and locked in a soundproof basement, begins to receive calls on a disconnected phone from the killer’s previous victims. Derrickson and frequent collaborator Cargill adapted from Joe Hill’s short story. Hill is an executive producer on the sequel.

Black Phone received high marks on Rotten Tomatoes with an 81% certified fresh critics score and 88% with audiences.

Issa López to Direct Her Original Screenplay “The Girl with a Thousand Names” for New Line

Posted on February 10, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Issa López has a thousand reasons to smile…

New Line has acquired the Mexican producer, writer and film director’s original screenplay The Girl with a Thousand Names.

Lopez will direct and produce the feature for HBO Max.

The Girl with a Thousand Names is the first original idea López has brought to the marketplace since the premiere of her acclaimed film Tigers Are Not Afraid.

She is currently in development on separate projects with producers Guillermo del Toro, Noah Hawley and Jason Blum.

Girl with a Thousand Names tells the fantastically real story of a child from another world, trapped in our broken reality… without documents, in a detention center for unaccompanied minors and children separated from their families at the U.S. border.

The film will be produced by López for her Peligrosa label alongside Macro’s Charles D. King and Poppy Hanks. The exec producers are Gaby Mena and Macro’s Greta Talia Fuentes.

Darwin del Fabro to Star in John Logan’s LGBTQIA+ Horror Film Set at Gay Conversion Camp

Posted on October 3, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Darwin del Fabro is bringing the screams…

The Brazilian stage and screen actor/singer will star in John Logan’s feature directorial debut, the LGBTQIA+ horror film set at a gay conversion camp.

The film, which will stream on Peacock, will also star Kevin Bacon, Anna Chlumsky, Theo Germain, Carrie Preston Quei Tann, Austin Crute, Anna Lore, Monique Kim and Cooper Koch.

The feature will be written by Logan, a three-time Oscar nominated scribe.

del Fabro was in the original Brazilian productions of Shrek The Musical, Fiddler on The Roof, The Wizard of Oz and was in the hit Brazilian soap opera, Ligações Perigosas (based on Les Liaisons Dangereuses).

He recently starred as Puck in a Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Juneberry Collective, as Adam in The Feather Dosen’t Fall Far From The Tree at Signature Theatre and Dominic in ‘Real the play at the Tank.

Jason Blum and Michael Aguilar are producing Logan’s untitled movie.

Mariah Carey to Receive Innovator Award from African American Film Critics Association

Posted on February 16, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Mariah Carey is being recognized for her storytelling…

The African American Film Critics Association has announced that the 51-year-old half-Venezuelan American singer/actress will receive an AAFCA Special Achievement Award at the 12th annual AAFCA Awards, taking place April 7.

Carey will be honored with the Innovator Award.

Other honorees include Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom director George C. Wolfe, streaming giant Netflix, and voter suppression documentary, All In: The Fight for Democracy.

Wolfe, whose remarkable career in theatre spans over 40 years, is the 2021 AAFCA Special Achievement Salute To Excellence honoree.

“Even with the challenges of the pandemic, we look forward to providing audiences with a memorable virtual experience. As with every year, this year’s honorees represent the highest standards of excellence in their fields,” said AAFCA CEO and President Gil Robertson. “Mariah Carey is often recognized as a global icon for her musical gifts, but rarely is she celebrated for the visual storytelling in her music videos and specials. As an artist who is all-hands-on-deck in not just crafting her songs, but also in curating and creating the imagery surrounding them, Carey is especially deserving of the 2021 AAFCA Special Achievement Innovator Award.”

Netflix is “the Cinema Vanguard recipient for fostering a global tribe rooted in bringing all people together across various languages and continents through the power of cinema,” said Robertson.

All In: The Fight for Democracy, directed by Lisa Cortes and Liz Garbus, who also co-produced with political titan Stacey Abrams, has been selected for this year’s Stanley Kramer Award.

Said Robertson, “In addition, we, at AAFCA, are doubly pleased that Mrs. Karen Kramer and her team chose to present this year’s AAFCA Stanley Kramer Award for Social Justice to All In: The Fight For Democracy highlighting Stacey Abrams’ personal mission to combat voter suppression.”

Past recipients of the AAFCA Special Achievement Awards include Channing Dungey, Quincy Jones, Jason Blum, Edward James Olmos, George Lucas, Sidney Poitier, Jon Chu, and Cicely Tyson.

Blumhouse Wins Screen Rights to New York Times’ Story About Late Mexican Human Rights Activist Miriam Rodriguez

Posted on December 27, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

The late Miriam Rodriguez’s story is headed to the big screen…

Blumhouse has won the screen rights to a December 13 New York Times story which chronicled the late Mexican human rights activist and desperate mother’s revenge spree in Mexico, when she avenged her daughter’s murder by taking on the drug cartels and tracking down the perpetrators by herself.

She saw 10 of them apprehended by police before she was shot and killed in front of her home on Mother’s Day, 2017.

NYT will produce with Blumhouse, and Caitlin Roper, NYT’s executive producer for scripted projects, is producing alongside the article’s writer, Azam Ahmed, and Jason Blum.

Anonymous Content represented the article in the sale process.

The story, titled She Stalked Her Daughter’s Killers Across Mexico, One by One, ignited a heated bidding immediately after it was published December 15.

Ahmed is NYT bureau chief for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. His article tells the story of the 56-year-old Rodriguez, whose whole world came crashing down on her when she lost her daughter, despite paying multiple ransom demands after the 20-year-old was kidnapped in 2014.

Getting no help from law enforcement, Rodriguez took things into her own hands. Using disguises and different identities, she went after the alleged kidnappers. She even used a gun to hold the culprits until she could get them handcuffed and arrested. Her story is juxtaposed with the plight of another family desperate for a happier outcome after their son is kidnapped.

Ahmed reported a series on the homicide crisis in Latin America, the deadliest region in the world, outlining the root causes of the violence. Each piece delved into a specific issue in a specific country, using intimate portraits of those living on the front lines of the crisis: the inescapable cycles of violence in Honduras, the scourge of femicide in Guatemala, the pervasiveness of illegally smuggled U.S. guns in Jamaica, the making of a cartel assassin in Mexico and the violence of the state in Brazil.

Last month, Azam won the Michael Kelly Award for his courageous and moving work for this series.

Azam’s reporting for this series has also been recognized this year with a Polk award, an Overseas Press Club award and the James Foley Medill Medal, which recognizes courage in pursuit of a story. Ahmed’s investigative work on corruption and the illegal use of spyware, Pegasus, helped launch federal investigations in México and led to major arrests and reform and the project was submitted by The Times for a Pulitzer Prize. Azam was previously the NYT bureau chief in Afghanistan, where he worked for nearly three years covering the war.

“The Craft: Legacy” Star Zoey Luna to Take Part in Blumhouse’s Virtual “BlumFest”

Posted on October 27, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Life is Blum a dream for Zoey Luna…

The 19-year-old Latina transgender actress will be taking part in Blumhouse’s first-ever BlumFest, a virtual event featuring panels of talent from the studio’s upcoming movies, both big screen and PVOD, and more.

The virtual event will take place Thursday, October 29 at 10:00 am PT on Blumhouse’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.

“This year has sidelined a lot for all of us, but Halloween is a treasured season at Blumhouse, so we conceived BlumFest to celebrate with our fans via a virtual event that will feature exclusive interviews and never-before-seen footage on an upcoming release or two,” said Jason Blum, Blumhouse’s CEO and founder.

Panels featured include:

Welcome to the Blumhouse – Join Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios and Blum for a lively convo about the collaboration between Amazon and Blumhouse on the recently launched movies The Lie, Nocturne, Evil Eye and Black Box. Mamoudou Athie from the film Black Box will join the duo along with surprise guests. The four films are currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

The Craft: Legacy – Writer-director Zoe Lister Jones and the film’s stars Cailee Spaeny, Gideon Adlon, Lovie Simone and Luna will chat about the cult hit reboot. The movie will debut Wednesday on PVOD and electronic sell-through domestic, with a big-screen release abroad.

Freaky – Writer-director Chris Landon, stars Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton, and Blum will chat about the body-swap horror comedy which hits theaters November 13 and select offshore markets via Universal.

Halloween Kills – Filmmaker David Gordon Green and the horror franchise’s scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis, producer Malek Akkad from Trancas Films and Miramax producer Bill Block and Blum will converse about the October 2021 release.

The Good Lord Bird – Ethan Hawke, EP, writer and star of the Showtime series and Blum, who’ve worked together over several projects, will discuss their most recent collaboration.

Issa Lopez to Write & Direct Blumhouse’s “Our Lady of Tears,” Based on Epic article “The Haunting of Girlstown”

Posted on May 21, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

There are tears in Issa López’s future…

The 48-year-old Mexican writer and director will adapt and direct Our Lady of Tears for Blumhouse based on the Daniel Hernandez’s Epic magazine article “The Haunting of Girlstown,” which was published on Vox.

The article focuses on a mass hysteria epidemic with supernatural roots, that in 2007 spread through Villa de las Niñas, an all girls, Catholic boarding school in the outskirts of Mexico City. The school recruited and isolated socially neglected girls coming from families living in extreme poverty and in remote areas of Mexico.

The project is in the same supernatural spirit of López’s previous feature, Tigers Are Not Afraid, which followed children fighting for survival in a harsh real-life environment.

“The moment I read the Epic article, I knew I wanted to tell this story. I myself attended a Catholic school in Mexico City. I grew up on a steady diet of supernatural visitations and miracles, and of the real life horrors that young girls who grow up in poverty face every day in Mexico, and around the world. Having the chance to tell that story with Jason [Blum] and his team, producers of such socially incisive genre classics like Get Out, and of so many true horror gems, is a huge privilege. I couldn’t be more excited about this movie,” said López in a statement.

“The Blumhouse team was enthralled by the original article and Daniel’s deep reporting around such a terrifying and heartbreaking story. Ever since I first watched Tiger’s Are Not Afraid, I have wanted to find a project to collaborate on with Issa and I knew this was a perfect fit. I can’t wait for audiences to see her take on this material,” said Blumhouse co-founder and CEO,Jason Blum.

“Epic spent years tracking down former students, government officials and teachers to try to understand what happened at Girlstown. We learned that isolation can protect us from physical threats but our internal demons follow us wherever we go,” said Joshua Davis, co-founder, Epic.

Our Lady of Tears will be produced by Blumhouse in association with Epic Media.

USA Network Orders Second Season of Gabriel Chavarria’s “The Purge” Series

Posted on November 7, 2018 by Tom Castaneda

Gabriel Chavarria is still purging…

USA Network has picked up its series The Purge, starring the 29-year-old Latino actor, for a second season.

The news came ahead of the show’s Season 1 finale.

Based on the popular movie franchise, the series is a co-production with Blumhouse Television and Universal Cable Productions. It is currently the network’s No. 1 drama, averaging 2.3 million viewers in Live+7 ratings and 1.2 million in the key 18-49 demo.

“USA Network is so proud to be the television home for the iconic franchise The Purge,” said Chris McCumber, President, Entertainment Networks for NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, in a release announcing the news. “The partnership and creative trust of Jason Blum and everyone at Blumhouse Television and Universal Pictures ensured The Purge’s successful transition from film to TV – and, along with Universal Cable Productions, we look forward to digging even deeper into the mythology in Season 2.”

The series revolves around a 12-hour period when all crime, including murder, is legal. Set in an altered America ruled by a totalitarian political party, Season 1 follows several seemingly unrelated characters living in a small city. As the clock winds down, they are forced to reckon with their past as they discover how far they will go to survive the night.

Film franchise creator James DeMonaco is executive producer of the series.

In addition to Chavarria, who portrays Miguel Guerrero, the series also stars Jessica Garza.

Longoria Signs First-Look Deal with Universal Pictures

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Eva Longoria is going universal…

The 41-year-old Mexican American actress, producer and activist and her production company UnbeliEVAble Entertainment have agreed to a two-year, first-look deal with Universal Pictures.

Universal president of production Peter Cramer made the pact.

First up is Universal’s acquisition of rights to My Daughter’s Quinceañera, a pitch from Lauren Iungerich, creator of the MTV series Awkward.

Longoria and producing partner Ben Spector will produce.

It’s the first crack at features for Iungerich, who’s attached to write, direct and co-produce the film that centers on an overwhelmed single father who is faced with the prospect of planning the quinceañera of his daughter’s dreams.

On the Universal deal, Cramer said: “While audiences have identified with Eva through her iconic television roles, she is also an extremely savvy producer with a keen eye for projects that appeal to a broad range of diverse audiences. We are fortunate that Eva has a found a home with Universal, sharing with us her creative instincts and passion for storytelling.”

Longoria, whose deal was made by CAA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners, is filming BBC Two’s high-end comedy miniseries Decline and Fall, an adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s classic social satire. She’ll next be seen in Ricardo de Montreuil’s Lowriders, which premiered at this year’s LA Film Festival. The film is produced by Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer and Blumhouse Production’s Jason Blum.

“Building upon our continued success as producers in television, we were seeking a home to expand the UnbeliEVAble brand into features,” said Longoria. “There’s simply no better place I could think of than Universal Pictures, whose diverse portfolio of releases is inspirational. Jeff, Donna and Peter’s passion was instrumental in keeping us in the Comcast family, and, beginning with My Daughter’s Quinceañera, we look forward to a long relationship with all our partners at the studio. Lauren’s pitch was so brilliant and funny, and to bring this experience to life is like reliving my 15th birthday.”

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