Ochoa to Star in the Indie Film “The Samuel Project”

Ryan Ochoa is going indie

The 20-year-old Latino actor has been cast in indie film The Samuel Project, alongside Hal Linden, Ken Davitian, Mateo Arias, Michael B. Silver, and Philippe Bowgen.

The feature centers on a teen (Ochoa) who gets to know his grandfather Samuel (Linden) when he makes him the subject of an animated art project for school. With dreams of becoming a professional artist, the young man discovers that his grandpa, a Jewish dry cleaner, was heroically saved from Nazi capture in Germany by a young woman when he was a boy.

Marc Fusco is directing the film from a script he co-wrote with Chris Neighbors.

Filming is said to begin in San Diego this week.

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Ortiz Joins the Cast of Voltage Pictures’ Untitled Detective Comedy Starring Bruce Willis

Victor Ortiz has landed his next movie role…

The 28-year-old Mexican American actor and former boxer has joined the cast of Voltage Pictures’ untitled detective comedy starring Bruce Willis.

Victor Ortiz

Ortize rounds out a cast that includes Tyga, Ken Davitian, David Arquette, John Goodman, Jason Momoa, Famke Janssen, Stephanie Sigman, Thomas Middleditch, Adrian Martinez, Kal Penn and Adam Goldberg.

Production began last month in Venice Beach on the film, which stars Willis as a down but not out L.A. private investigator whose professional and personal worlds collide after his loving pet Buddy is stolen by a notorious gang. A series of bizarre circumstances find him doing the gang’s bidding, while being chased by two vengeful Samoan brothers, a loan shark’s goons, and a few other shady characters.

Mark and Robb Cullen, who also wrote the Willis-starring movie Cop Out, are directing the film.

Ortiz, a former WBC Welterweight champion and Dancing with the Stars competitor, has starred opposite Antonio Banderas in The Expendables 3 and Jake Gyllenhaal in Southpaw.