Al Madrigal to Star in Disney’s “Stargirl” Sequel

Posted on April 4, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Al Madrigal has a new Star-ring role…

The 49-year-old half-Mexican American actor will star in the Julia Hart-directed Disney feature sequel to Stargirl.

Madrigal, best known for his work as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, joins a roster of cast newcomers that includes Sarayu Blue, Chris Williams and Nija Okoro.

Stargirl 2 follows Grace VanderWaal’s title protagonist as she journeys out of Mica into a bigger world of music, dreams and possibility.

The script is based on the original character from Jerry Spinelli’s bestselling book. VanderWaal will write and perform new original music for the sequel.

Hart co-wrote with her husband Jordan Horowitz.

The four new actors join a cast that includes Uma Thurman (Roxanne Martell, a musician who Stargirl idolizes), Judy Greer (Stargirl’s mom), Judd Hirsch (Stargirl’s neighbor Mr. Mitchell), Elijah Richardson (Stargirl’s beau Evan) and Tyrel Jackson Williams (Terrell, Evan’s older brother).

Madrigal will play Iggy, the MC at a local music club. Blue will play Alex, an up-and-coming film producer.

Madrigal feature credits include The Way Back, Night School, the upcoming Marvel/Sony movie Morbius and the television series I’m Dying Up Here, About a Boy, Free Agents and Gary Unmarried.

MGM in Exclusive Talks for Jared Leto’s Supernatural Thriller “Adrift”

Posted on January 29, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Jared Leto is (a)drifting away…

MGM is reportedly in exclusive negotiations for the supernatural thriller Adrift, with the 49-year-old part-Spanish American Oscar-winning actor and singer attached to star and Darren Aronofsky on board to direct.

Jason Blum will produce the film, which saw MGM was extremely move fast to be in pole position to land the package. Details behind the financing are unavailable since the deal hasn’t officially closed.

Blum will produce through his Blumhouse Productions along with Leto and Emma Ludbrook via their production company Paradox, as will Carla Hacken through her Paper Pictures banner.

The film is based on a short story by Koji Suzuki, who wrote The Ring. Aronofsky and Luke Dawson will be co-penning the script. Insiders close to the package say Leto identified the project and he and Ludbrook pursued the rights for 10 years before bringing to Blum and Aronofsky.

The story is set in the dead calm of the open sea, where a fishing boat discovers an abandoned yacht with a strange distress call. A deckhand agrees to take lone control of it while it’s towed into port, but soon he discovers why the rest of his more experienced crew members call it a “Ghost Ship.”

No production start date has been set as a script still needs to be written and scheduling needs to be worked out.

Leto currently appears in The Little Things for Warner Bros. starring opposite Denzel Washington and Rami Malek. That film dropped today in theaters and on HBO Max. He also is developing a handful of projects including a sequel to Tron: Legacy, which has him attached to star and Garth Davis on board to direct. He can also be seen in the upcoming Spider-Man spinoff Morbius.

Sony Pictures Pushes Release Date of Jared Leto’s Marvel Film “Morbius” to October

Posted on January 12, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Jared Leto’s marvel-ous film is moving to the fall…

Sony Pictures’ Morbius, starring the 49-year-old actor and singer, has been moved back by seven months, from March 19 to October 8.

With COVID-19 cases raging as we await a calmer administration to set foot in Washington and deal with the nation’s health crisis, many are expecting this year’s first quarter theatrical releases to move.

Morbius moves to a release date currently occupied by United Artists Releasing’s animated sequel The Addams Family 2.

This is a major Marvel movie for Sony, and the studio is protecting it rather than sending the film to PVOD.

In Morbius, Biochemist Michael Morbius (Leto) tries to cure himself of a rare blood disease, but he inadvertently infects himself with a form of vampirism instead.

Daniel Espinosa directs off a screenplay by Matt Sazama and Buck Sharpless.

Jared Leto In Talks to Star in the Apple TV+ Series “WeCrashed”

Posted on December 18, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Jared Leto could be crashing the project…

The 48-year-old part-Spanish American actor and Oscar-winner is in early talks to star in the Apple TV+ series WeCrashed, an adaptation of the popular podcast.

Deadline.com reports the deal is far from closed and may not go forward but discussions are ongoing. Directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa are on board to helm.

Lee Eisenberg and Drew Crevello will pen the series and are executive producing.

Hosted by David Brown, the podcast series told the tale of WeWork and its founders. The company was valued at $47 billion, it was ready for a huge IPO, and its charismatic CEO Adam Neumann thought it was going to change the world. Neumann had a prophet-like vision for WeWork that he sold to some of the world’s savviest investors — but did his vision ever match the company’s reality?

Leto would play Newmann in the series, which mark Leto’s return to television after his star-making role in the short-lived 1990s ABC series My So Called Life.

He’s currently developing a handful of projects including a sequel to Tron: Legacy, which has him attached to star and Garth Davis on board to direct. He also is on board to be a part of the A-list ensemble in Ridley Scott’s Gucci.

Leto can be seen next in the Warner Bros thriller The Little Things opposite Denzel Washington and Rami Malek and also has the Spider-Man spinoff Morbius.

Jared Leto In Talks to Star in Ridley Scott’s Next Project “Gucci”

Posted on August 24, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

It looks like Jared Leto could be landing a fashionable new role…

Ridley Scott is reportedly in talks with the 48-year-old part-Spanish American Oscar-winning actor/singer to star in his next project, MGM’s Gucci.

Leto forms part of Scott’s all-star cast wish list that includes Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Jack Huston and Reeve Carney.

Lady Gaga is already attached to star as Patrizia Reggiani, the ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci, who was tried and convicted of orchestrating his assassination on the steps of his office in 1995. She served 18 years in jail before being let out in 2016.

Maurizio had two daughters with Reggiani, but he left her for another woman. She’d had a brain tumor removed, and her children blamed it for her actions; the media took a darker view of her during a sensationalized affair, depicting her as a hot-blooded woman scorned and dubbing her “Black Widow.” She was originally handed a sentence of 29 years.

It’s Gaga’s first starring role since her Best Actress Oscar nomination in 2018’s A Star Is Born. She won an Academy Award for writing the song “Shallow.”

MGM landed the rights to the film back in April with plans to go into production after Scott finishes shooting his current project The Last Duel.

Scott’s partner Giannina Scott long has been passionate about the cinematic prospects for a film about the tumultuous Gucci family’s fashion dynasty and the murder of the grandson of founder Guccio Gucci.

The Gucci murder tale is scripted by Roberto Bentivegna, based on Sara Gay Forden’s book The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed.

Leto, who won multiple awards, including an Oscar, for his role in Dallas Buyers Club, will next appear in Sony’s Morbius.

Jared Leto to Star in the Next Installment of Disney’s “Tron”

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Jared Leto’s latest project is revving up…

The 48-year-old part-Spanish Oscar-winning actor and Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman will star in the next installment of Disney’s sci-fi franchise Tron.

The film will be directed by Garth Davis, who directed the critically acclaimed 2016 drama Lion, which received six Oscar nominations including one for Best Picture.

Jesse Wigutow wrote the most recent draft of the script. Leto is producing along with Justin Springer and Emma Ludbrook.

The original 1982 film starring Jeff Bridges was set inside the computer program called the Grid, where a computer hacker is abducted and forced to participate in gladiatorial games. The film wasn’t a hit and received mixed reviews, even though its special effects were seen as game-changing at the time. The cult following that swelled around the film in years to come as it played on cable only helped grow its popularity, to the point where Disney decided to move forward with a sequel, Tron: Legacy, in 2010, with Bridges reprising his role and Garret Hedlund and Olivia Wilde joining the franchise.

That film did go on to have box office success, bringing in $400 million globally, but even so plans for a sequel were pushed while Disney figured out how to move the story forward.

The studio eventually scrapped plans for a direct sequel to Tron: Legacyand has been taking time to figure out next steps for this project.

Leto, who earned an Academy Award for his performance in Dallas Buyers Club, will next be seen in Morbius and The Little Things. His previous credits include Suicide Squad, Blade Runner 2049, Phone Booth and Panic Room.

Daniel Espinosa to Direct the Jamal Khashoggi Murder Drama “The Execution”

Posted on June 1, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Daniel Espinosa has a new Post production…

The half-Chilean filmmaker has agreed to develop and direct the Good Films Collective’s The Execution.

The narrative drama focuses on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi Arabian-born dissident and Washington Post columnist who was killed and dismembered after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to get a marriage license.

The film will explore how it happened, why it happened and what happened in the aftermath.

Petter Skavlan is attached to write the script.

Espinosa’s previous directing credits include Safe House, Life, Child 44 and Easy Money.

His next project to hit the big screen is the upcoming film Morbius with Jared Leto.

Khashoggi was killed by a Saudi hit team that was closely connected to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Johnathan Fernandez to Star on HBO Max’s “Gossip Girl” Series Reimagining

Posted on March 3, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Johnathan Fernandez is ready to spill the tea…

The 46-year-old Colombian and Honduran American actor joined Emily Alyn Lindin Gossip Girl, HBO Max’s upcoming series reimagining of the pop culture phenomenon that made household names of stars like Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford and Ed Westwick.

Fernandez joins a roster of new cast additions that includes Whitney Peak, Eli Brown and Jason Gotay.S

The 10-episode series hails from Joshua Safran, Josh Schwartzand Stephanie Savage’s Fake Empire, Alloy Entertainment, Warner Bros Televisionand CBS Television Studios.

Like the original series, the new iteration of Gossip Girl, written by Safran, is based on the book by Cecily von Ziegesar. Eight years after the original website went dark, a new generation of New York private school teens are introduced to the social surveillance of Gossip Girl.

The prestige series will address just how much social media — and the landscape of New York itself — has changed in the intervening years.

No official character descriptions for the quartet are being released. The new series is said to have a similar character dynamic to the original, with Peak, Brown and Lind as the leading trio and Fernandez and Gotay as members of the core ensemble.

Gossip Girlran for six seasons from 2007-2012 on the CW across 121 episodes. Its influence extended beyond television.Fernandez was a series regular on another WBTV series, Fox’s Lethal Weapon. For three seasons, he played the dry-toned medical examiner on the series reboot. Fernandez will next appear in the Marvel feature Morbiusand the indie Together-ish.

Adria Arjona In Talks to Star in Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man Universe Film “Morbius”

Posted on December 16, 2018 by Tom Castaneda

Adria Arjona could be heading to the Spider-verse…

The 26-year-old Guatemalan and Puerto Rican actress is in talks to portray Martine, the female lead in Sony Pictures’ feature film Morbius, which stars Jared Leto.

Daniel Espinosa is directing the Spider-Man Universe spinoff based on Marvel Comics’ antihero Morbius the Living Vampire.

Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane, the renowned biochemist Dr. Michael Morbius first debuted in the 1970s The Amazing Spider-Man#101 issue. He attempts to cure a fatal blood disease by injecting himself with a treatment serum derived from bats, which transforms him into the anti-hero Morbius. He has all the qualities of a vampire, including a taste for human blood.

In the comics, Martine, who is engaged to Morbius, becomes a potential victim to his bloodlust as he grapples with the transformation that has made him a weird laboratory version of the supernatural vampires of lore.

Sony has declined to comment on Arjona’s possible casting.

Arjona, who made television history as the first Latina and bilingual Dorothy in NBC’s short-lived series Emerald City, was most recently seen on the big screen in Universal’s Pacific Rim Uprising and the Melissa McCarthy-starrer Life of the Party.

Her upcoming projects include Netflix’s Michael Bay movie Six Underground opposite Ryan Reynolds and Corey Hawkins and Triple Frontier with Ben Affleck, as well as Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens series at Amazon.

Jared Leto to Star in the Spider-Man Universe Spinoff Film “Morbius”

Posted on June 28, 2018 by Tom Castaneda

Jared Leto has lined up his next blockbuster…

The 46-year-old part Spanish American actor/singer is set to star in Morbius, a Spider-Man Universe spinoff based on the Marvel Comics antihero Morbius the Living Vampire.

The film will be helmed by half-Chilean director Daniel Espinosa.

Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama, creators of Netflix’s Lost in Space, wrote the script.

Leto, who played the iconic character The Joker in DC Comics’ Suicide Squad and has been mentioned for a bunch of potential Joker-centric spinoffs, here will play Dr. Michael Morbius, a biochemist who in an attempt to cure a fatal blood disease injects himself with a treatment serum derived from bats. He becomes the anti-hero Morbius. He has all the qualities of a vampire, including a taste for human blood. The character originated in the ’70s Marvel Comics as a Spider-Man nemesis in The Amazing Spider-Man #101, but he evolved into his own freestanding comic hero as the decades unfolded.

Espinosa last directed the sci-fi pic Life, and before that Child 44 and Safe House.

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