Oscar Isaac Officially Starring in Season Two of Netflix’s “Beef” Anthology Series

Posted on October 22, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Oscar Isaac is officially beefing up his resume…

Netflix has confirmed it is moving forward with a second season of its anthology series Beef, with the 45-year-old Cuban-Guatemalan actors among the cast members for the new installment.

Isaac will be joined by Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny for the new season.

In Season 2, a young couple witnesses an alarming fight between their boss and his wife, triggering chess moves of favors and coercion in the elitist world of a country club and its Korean billionaire owner.

Further Season 2 details will be revealed at a later time.

The first season of Beef starring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, premiered in 2023 and went on to win a slew of awards including eight Emmy Awards, four Critics Choice Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, two Gotham Awards, two Film Independent Spirit Awards, two SAG Awards, as well as PGA, WGA and AFI Honors.

In the first season, Yeun and Wong play two strangers whose lives collide in a strange way after they’re involved in a road rage incident. The story is based off Lee’s personal experience with a road rage incident.

The upcoming installment will consist of eight 30-minutes episodes with Lee Sung Jin returning as creator, showrunner and executive producer. Yeun, Wong and Jake Schreier also executive produce. A24 is the studio.

Isaac earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in HBO’s Scenes From a Marriage.

He recently wrapped production on Julian Schnabel’s Hand of Dante, starring opposite Jason Momoa, as well as Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein movie in which he plays Doctor Frankenstein.

Oscar Isaac In Talks to Star in Season Two of Netflix & A24’s “Beef”

Posted on June 22, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Oscar Isaac may be beefing up his acting resume…

The 45-year-old Cuban-Guatemalan actor and Carey Mulligan are in talks to star in Season 2 of Netflix and A24 Emmy-winning anthology series Beef.

Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny have already been confirmed to appear in season 2.

Insiders say the second season is revolving around two feuding couples, adding that no official Season 2 order has been given, per Deadline.com.

The roles Isaac and Mulligan would be playing were rumored to be for Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, but that ultimately did not come to fruition.

Isaac has had success as of late on the limited series front with his performance in HBO’s Scenes From a Marriage, which earned him an Emmy nomination.

Since then he has finished production on Julian Schnabel’s Hand of Dante, starring opposite Jason Momoa.

He’s currently shooting Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein movie in which he plays Doctor Frankenstein.

Season 1 on Beef starred Ali Wong and Steven Yeun as two strangers who get into a road rage incident that brings chaos into their lives.

Jacob Elordi to Star in Guillermo del Toro’s Netflix Film “Frankenstein”

Posted on January 8, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Jacob Elordi is preparing for a monstrous role…

The 26-year-old half-Spanish Australian actor will form part of the all-star ensemble cast of Oscar-winning filmmaker’s Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein at Netflix.

Elordi will play the iconic monster, replacing Andrew Garfield, who fell out due to strike postponements that led to scheduling conflicts.

The Saltburn actor joins a cast that includes Christoph Waltz, Felix Kammerer, Lars Mikkelsen, David Bradley and Christian Convery.

Oscar Isaac, who will play Victor Frankenstein, and Mia Goth are set to star in the pic.

del Toro is writing, directing and producing alongside J. Miles Dale, who served as a producer on del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities for Netflix.

The classic Mary Shelley novel follows Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist who brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.

del Toro has been developing the Frankenstein project for some time and long has wanted to make a movie centered on the iconic story. It is unknown whether his version would be a period pic or set in modern times.

Elordi has had a busy stretch with multiple awards-season films bowing including the Amazon MGM Studios film Saltburn, in which he starred opposite Barry Keoghan. He also played Elvis Presley in A24’s Priscilla directed by Sofia Coppola.

Oscar Isaac to Star in the Crime Thriller “In the Hand of Dante”

Posted on October 16, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Oscar Isaac has a new project on his hand(s)…

The 44-year-old Cuban-Guatemalan actor will star in the crime thriller In the Hand of Dante, with Oscar nominee Julian Schnabel directing and Martin Scorsese among the executive producers.

Isaac will star opposite Jason Momoa and Gerard Butler in the film, which is in production in Italy and recently landed an Interim Agreement from SAG-AFTRA allowing it to film during the actors strike.

Based on the novel by Nick Tosches, it follows the story of the original manuscript for The Divine Comedy emerging in the clutches of a black-market smuggling ring in the dangerous underbelly of New York City, and weary scholar Nick is called by the mob to authenticate it.

Overwhelmed by temptation, Nick defies the mafia and steals the manuscript in a frenzied bid to have it all. He follows a dark and violent path from a metaphorical Hell into Paradise with his love Giulietta, while a parallel tale unfolds: the odyssey of Dante himself, a man who is trapped in a loveless marriage with Gemma and bolstered only by his mentorship under an austere intellectual. He escapes to Sicily and creates his greatest work, immortalizing his lost love, Beatrice.

Nick and Dante’s timelines weave separate paths, and yet the two men are inextricably linked — both lose themselves chasing love, beauty and the very promise of the divine.

Scorsese will executive produce alongside DreamCrew, Screen Capital/Screen One and Tribune Pictures, with Isaac (through his production company Mad Gene Media) and Schnabel also executive producing.

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” Featuring Oscar Isaac, Opens with $120.5 Million U.S. Box Office Haul

Posted on June 4, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Oscar Isaac is slinging his way to the top of the box office…

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, featuring the 44-year-old Cuban-Guatemalan actor as Miguel O’Hara aka Spider-Man 2099, earned a stellar $120.5 million in its domestic box office debut.

The film beat expectations to land the second-biggest opening weekend of the year, behind only The Super Mario Bros. Movie with $146 million, as well as the third-biggest opening weekend for any Spider-Man film.

Sony’s animated sequel is benefitting from great reviews and positive word-of-mouth, as well as goodwill from its predecessor, 2018’s Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Initial ticket sales were significantly higher than the first film, which introduced audiences to Miles Morales and the idea that “anyone can wear the mask” and opened to just $35.5 million. But it proved to have enduring appeal and stuck around in theaters for a while, ending its run with $190 million in North America and $384 million globally.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse earned another $88.1 million from 59 territories in its international box office debut, led by China with $17.3 million. That brings its worldwide total to $208.6 million to start.

“This is an exceptionally good opening for an animation follow-up sequel,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “Spider-Verse took a well-liked superhero, gave the storytelling an original visual style and voice and created a unique experience.”

Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson directed the PG-rated Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which cost $100 million.

The story follows Miles and Gwen Stacy (a.k.a. Spider-Woman) as they attempt to save their fellow Spider People from the villain who goes by the name the Spot. Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld returned to voice Miles and Gwen, while the rest of the voice cast includes Brian Tyree Henry, Issa Rae, Jason Schwartzman, Daniel Kaluuya and Isaac. Lauren Velez voices the character of Rio Morales, Miles’ mom.

Audiences awarded the film an “A” CinemaScore while critics bestowed it with a 95% average on Rotten Tomatoes.

Julio Rojas Penning His First Rom-Com Film “Detras de ti”

Posted on May 12, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Julio Rojas is bringing the romance…

The Chilean author/screenwriter, whose serial podcast Case 63 was Spotify’s most popular podcast in Latin America and was adapted into English with Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac starring, is writing his first rom-com following the global success of Case 63.

Titled Detras de ti (working title), the upcoming project is being co-produced by Spain’s EvaFilms and David Naranjo’s Pris & Batty, best known for its hit comedies 8 apellidos vascos, 8 apellidos catalanes and Toc toc.

“Ever since I listened to ‘Case 63,’ I was very keen to work with Julio and bring his work to the big screen,” said Eva Cebrián of EvaFilms, adding: “Julio is an indisputable storyteller who has most understood the audio format, given his deep experience as a screenwriter.”

While Rojas has a predilection for sci-fi projects, Cebrián pointed out that romance was very much intrinsic to his work. Detras de ti will be a departure for Rojas, but it’s set in the near future and will still bear science-fiction elements.

Rojas is also known for co-writing Pablo Fendrik’s Latino sci-fi series The Shelter, story editing Lucia Puenzo’s La Jauria and penning a number of acclaimed features, led by Marcela Said’s The Summer of Flying Fish and Matias Bize’s The Memory of Water.

To be directed by Vicente Villanueva, Detras de ti centers on 24-year-old Joaquin, an aspiring screenwriter who while trying to land a job at a streaming platform, forms part of an “image support team,” a top secret service where a group of nerds in a control room connect visually and aurally with a celebrity to guide him through situations and make him appear more intelligent, creative and talented than he really is.

When Joaquin sees his client, B-list actor Daniel Casañas, start falling in love with the same girl he loves, the boundaries between appearance and reality begin to blur for everyone. This is “a romantic comedy in a world where the real and the artificial, where the authentic and the apparent grow increasingly muddled,” the synopsis says.

EvaFilms and Pris & Batty are also co-producing fantasy tale La Ternura, which is being shot in the Dominican Republic.

EvaFilms was founded in 2019 by Cebrián, who held executive positions at pubcaster RTVE as head of film and later, of TV programming. She also founded OnDemand Media, an audiovisual producer and consultant in Mexico and Spain, was an advisor to the digital creative agency Social Noise and was director of new projects and developments for Stage Entertainment Spain, a company that produces some of the most successful musicals in the world.

Oscar Isaac to Star in Broadway Production of Lorraine Hansberry’s “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window”

Posted on April 5, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Oscar Isaac is headed to the Great White Way….

The 44-year-old Cuban-Guatemalan actor will star opposite Rachel Brosnahan later this month in the Broadway production of Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window.

The production, which opened a sold-out run Off Broadway at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in February, is now set to be the final production of the 2022-23 Broadway season.

Opening night for the limited, 80-performance run is Thursday, April 27, at the James Earl Jones Theatre.

Directed by Anne Kauffman, the revival will mark the first time the Hansberry play has been produced on Broadway in more than 50 years, and the first BAM-produced production to transfer to Broadway since The Gospel at Colonus 35 years ago.

The follow-up to Hansberry’s landmark 1959 play A Raisin in the Sun, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window debuted on Broadway in 1964 shortly before the playwright’s death on January 12, 1965, at age 34. The recent Off Broadway staging broke all house records at BAM’s Harvey Theater.

Set in New York’s Greenwich Village during the early 1960s, Brustein’s Window focuses on the troubled marriage of idealistic writer Sidney (Isaac, in his Broadway debut) and aspiring actor Iris (Brosnahan). As the couple’s marriage seems to crumble, their friends and neighbors in the politically progressive West Village weave in and out of the Brusteins’ apartment and lives.

“This production, directed by Anne Kauffman and originally produced and nurtured by David Binder at BAM, is a celebration of the radical artistic vision of Lorraine Hansberry at the zenith of her art making,” said Joi Gresham, Literary Trustee, Estate of Lorraine Hansberry, in a statement.

The complete cast of the BAM production will make the move to Broadway along with Isaac and Brosnahan, including Gus Birney, Julian De Niro, Glenn Fitzgerald, Andy Grotelueschen, Miriam Silverman and Raphael Nash Thompson. The understudy company features Joey Auzenne, Katya Campbell, Gregory Connors and Brontë England Nelson.

The creative team includes dots (Scenic Design), Brenda Abbandandolo (Costume Design), John Torres (Lighting Design), Bray Poor (Sound Design), Leah Loukas (Wig Design) and Arminda Thomas (Dramaturg).

Oscar Isaac Teams Up with Gaby Moreno to Release Stripped-Down Cover of “Luna de Xelajú”

Posted on March 31, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Oscar Isaac is paying homage to his Guatemalan roots through song…

The 44-year-old Cuban-Guatemalan actor has joined voices with Gaby Moreno to release a stripped-down rendition of the classic waltz anthem, “Luna de Xelajú.”

The lead single off Moreno’s upcoming album was released on Friday alongside a music video directed by Diego Contreras, which sees the two guitarists and singers performing the track in one take at the Palace Theater in Los Angeles.

“‘Luna de Xelajú’ is considered the 2nd anthem of my country, Guatemala. Written by Paco Pérez in the 1940s,” explains Moreno. “I’ve been singing it since I was a teenager and more recently have been performing this song live in my concerts, usually as an encore. I invited my dear friend and incredible artist, Oscar Isaac, to sing it with me for this very special acoustic version…Just two voices with two guitars, singing together this timeless, sweet, and nostalgic song from our motherland.”

Isaac is no stranger to displaying his musical prowess on screen.

The Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated actor played a struggling folk musician in the Coen Brothers-directed Inside Llewyn Davis, and also co-wrote an original song for the 2011 film 10 Years. However, “Luna de Xelajú” is particularly notable because it sees Isaac singing in Spanish.

“My grandmother Graciela Argentina Nicolle de Estrada would perform ‘Luna De Xelajú’ in the concert halls of Guatemala. Growing up it was always hummed or sung as a lullaby by my mother Eugenia, and was a favorite of my uncle Guillermo’s,” Isaac says. “I’m grateful to Gaby for asking me to share this song as a way of honoring my family and all of Guate.”

Since moving to the U.S. from her native Guatemala, Moreno has put out seven albums with her 2022 record Alegoría earning a Grammy nomination for best Latin rock or alternative album. She was previously nominated in 2017 in the best Latin pop album category for her Spanish-folk album, Ilusión.

In addition to her music, Moreno has a long list of credits in TV and film. She co-wrote the theme song for Parks and Recreation, and most recently collaborated on Guillermo del Toro’s Netflix show Cabinet of Curiosities.

Moreno also received a 2023 Guild of Music Supervisors Awards nomination for her song “A Song In My Heart” in the Eugenio Derbez-starring film, The Valet.

“Luna de Xelajú” is the first single from Moreno’s “X Mí (Vol. 1)” EP (pronounced “Por Mi”), slated for release on May 5 via Cosmica Artists.

The new record — a blend of songs in both English and Spanish — “will house a collection of rich and soulful acoustic songs that have remained dear to Gaby’s heart,” per the press release.

Guillermo del Toro Finalizing Plans to Write & Direct His Next Netflix Project “Frankenstein”

Posted on March 16, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Guillermo del Toro is inching closer to his next live-action film…

The 58-year-old Mexican history-making Academy Award winner is thisclose to finalizing a deal to write and direct the film Frankenstein, with Andrew Garfield, Oscar Isaac and Mia Goth in early talks to star in del Toro’s next Netflix project.

Insiders close to the film caution that del Toro is still working on the script and no formal offers have given to any actors. But sources add that he has has met with all three, and each is on board to star.

No comment from Netflix.

del Toro has been developing the Frankenstein project for some time and long has wanted to make a movie centered on the iconic Mary Shelley story. It is unknown whether his version would be a period pic or set in modern times. Also unknown is who would be playing Doctor Frankenstein or his creation; it is believed Goth would be playing the doctor’s love interest.

Even in its early days, del Toro seems to be pulling together an ensemble as on fire as any in town.

Isaac continues to be busy as he is coming off his Emmy-nominated work in HBO’s Scenes from a Marriage and the Marvel limited series Moon Knight. He was also recently tapped to play Kurt Vonnegut in the limited series Helltown.

Oscar Isaac In Talks to Star In & Executive Produce Crime Thriller “Helltown”

Posted on March 13, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Oscar Isaac may be hell bound

The 44-year-old Cuban-Guatemalan actor is in talks to star in and executive produce Helltown, a project based on the book of the same name by Casey Sherman.

Filmmaker Ed Berger is set to direct and executive produce the eight-episode crime thriller in development at Amazon Studios from Mohamad El Masri, Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey’s Team Downey.

Written by El Masri, who serves as executive producer and showrunner, Helltown centers on Kurt Vonnegut (Isaac) before he was a renowned author and cultural lightning rod. In 1969 Kurt was a struggling novelist and car salesman living life with his wife and five children on Cape Cod. When two women disappear and are later discovered murdered underneath the sand dunes on the outskirts of Provincetown, Kurt becomes obsessed and embroiled in the chilling hunt for a serial killer and forms a dangerous bond with the prime suspect.

Isaac would executive produce with Gena Konstantinakos through his Mad Gene banner.

Isaac, who recently headlined Marvel’s Disney+ series Moon Knight, can be seen alongside Rachel Brosnahan in the revival of Lorraine Hanberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, directed by Anne Kauffman at the BAM Harvey Theater.

Last year, he was nominated for a SAG and Emmy award for HBO’s Scenes from a Marriage.

Isaac launched Mad Gene in 2019 with his wife, writer and director Elvira Lind. The company’s first project, short film The Letter Room, was nominated for a 2021 Academy Award.

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