Daniel Brühl to Star in Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s Thriller “Rich Flu”

Posted on May 27, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Daniel Brühl’s acting riches continue…

The 43-year-old half-Spanish actor has joined the cast of the Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia directed thriller, Rich Flu, alongside Macaulay Culkin.

Rosamund Pike is attached to star in the film, which is expected to begin production in the fall.

In the film, a strange disease is killing off some of the richest and most influential people on the planet. First it was the billionaires, then the multi-millionaires and so on progressively. Now it threatens to strike anyone with any sort of fortune, and no one knows where it might end. With the whole world panicking and our very way of life headed for collapse, people are trying to flood the market with assets the world no longer wants.

Pedro Rivero, Gaztelu-Urrutia and David Desola wrote the screenplay with revisions by Sam Steiner.

Sierra/Affinity is handling foreign sales and has the project available to buyers at this year’s Cannes Film Market. CAA Media Finance is representing the film domestically.

Producers on Rich Flu include Pablo Larraín and Juan de Dios Larraín via their Fabula banner, which produced the movies Spencer, Jackie, and No; Adrián Guerra and Núria Valls via the Nostromo Pictures label; Carlos Juárez; as well as Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia and Albert Soler.

Brühl, who will next star in Stefano Mordini’s racing film 2 Win, was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the BAFTAs for Ron Howard’s Rush.

His previous feature credits include The King’s Man, Captain America: Civil War, Inglourious Basterds and the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Pantaya Releases First-Look Trailer for Lucía Puenzo’s New Series “Señorita 89”

Posted on December 23, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Lucía Puenzo is preparing for a little pageantry…

Pantaya has released the official first-look trailer and teaser key art for the Argentine author, screenwriter and film director’s Señorita 89, one of the most anticipated of series from Latin America in 2022,

Puenzo’s new series will premiere in the U.S. on February 27.

Produced by Academy Award winners Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín and Fabula, Pantaya, Starzplay and Fremantle, “Señorita 89” is showrun by Puenzo, who is rapidly emerging as one of the Latin America’s foremost film and television writer-directors after La Jauría, first fruit of a first-look deal between Fabula and Fremantle.

La Jauría drilled down on multiple forms of sexual abuse, powered by a thriller format. Señorita 89 looks as if it might do the same but in a far different context, exposing the unseen and unseemly reality behind the glamor of a 1989 Miss Mexico beauty pageant.

The drama thriller is set in a seeming paradise, La Encantada estate in wooded Mexican hills where 32 beauty queens arrive for three-months of grooming before competing for become Miss Mexico.

The paradise soon becomes a living hell. Some of this hell’s circles are teased in this first look, as well as its disruptive and often very human passions – carnal, romantic, narcotic – and a plush high style which forefronts, however, restrictive framing, whether gateways, passages and corridors.

Also introduced, however briefly, is a top notch Mexican-Chilean cast playing what looks like the series’ main characters: Miss Guerrero (Bárbara López), with a perfect body and self-destructive bent; Miss Chihuahua (Leidi Gutiérrez), who grew up working in a sweat shop; Elena (Ximena Romo), a brilliant post-grad student brought in to teach the girls culture; and above all, Concepción, embodied by Ilse Salas, one of the finest Mexican actors of her generation who is co-director of La Encantada.

There’s also the suggestion of a fairy tale in the cozy establishing shot of the house in the big woods and the positioning of Concepción as a step-mother to her wards; and echoes of film styles and classic works – ‘50s American melodrama,

Concepción’s husband as a Doctor Frankenstein, Dante’s “Inferno” – which Puenzo is so good at picking up and reworking to instructive effect.

Just how all of this rich material will play out remains to be seen. Pantaya will premiere “Señorita 89’s” first two episodes on February 27 in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, followed by a weekly episode every Sunday.

The full season of eight episodes will be available for binging on April 10. Starzplay will distribute the series in Spain and Latin America. Fremantle handles global distribution.

Pedro Almodovar’s “Parallel Mothers” Added to Spotlight Section at This Year’s Hamptons Film Festival

Posted on September 15, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Pedro Almodovar is headed to the Hamptons…

The Hamptons Film Festival has finalized its 2021 slate, with the 71-year-old Spanish Oscar-winning director’s latest film making the list.

Almodovar’s Parallel Mothers, starring Penelope Cruz, has been added to the festival’s Spotlight section, alongside Cyrano, The Lost Daughter, The Power of the Dog, joining C’mon C’mon and Jockey.

Parallel Mothers received a 5-minute standing ovation when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival as the fest’s opening night film. It earned Cruz the Volpi Cup for Best Actress during the festival’s closing ceremony.

Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, starring Tony Revolori, will be the closing-night film on October 13, while Pablo Larraín’s Spencer will be the Centerpiece Film in its East Coast premiere.

The festival is opening on October 7 with the world premiere of Matthew Heineman’s COVID-19 documentary The First Wave. The 29th edition of the fest will feature a lineup of films that are 53% female-directed and rep 34 countries.

The festival will run as a hybrid in-person/virtual event. Find more info here.

Neon Offers First Look at Pablo Larrain’s Princess Diana-Biopic “Spencer” Starring Kristen Stewart

Posted on August 26, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Pablo Larraín’s latest project is earning royal raves…

Neon has released the first trailer and extended clip for the 45-year-old Chilean Oscar-nominated filmmaker’s latest film Spencer, the biopic about Princess Diana that stars Kristen Stewart.

The film will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 3, then move on to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

There’s been a lot of attention on the prospect of Stewart’s portrayal of the iconic Lady Di (she was last in Venice playing another real-life woman in 2019’s Seberg).

The trailer footage begins with the arrival at Sandringham for the Christmas weekend and takes us through preparations for dinner while Diana is clearly stressed in a bathroom as she’s called to the table. Other images show her strutting down a long hallway dressed to the nines in a silver gown, sitting for a family portrait, paparazzi snapping cameras, and Diana also in moments of letting loose dancing and running across the estate grounds.

In the extended footage clip, Diana and Prince Charles discuss the scrutiny that’s placed on them by the media. She says, “If they’re circling, it seems they’re circling just me.” To which Charles retorts, “Perhaps that’s because I always take care to close my curtains.”

In the tense exchange, he adds, “There has to be two of you. There’s two of me… The real one and the one they take pictures of… We are given a task… But you have to be able to make your body do things you hate.” Diana: “That you hate?” Charles: “Yes… For the country, the people. They don’t want us to be people. That’s how it is. I’m sorry, I thought you knew.”

They have their tiff across a distanced snooker table and also nip about the son’s taking up shooting outside, and her wardrobe. The scene culminates in Stewart’s Diana having a measured display of irritation at her husband who is railing on her, but with such a placid tone.

Directed by Larrain and written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, the film takes place during the Christmas holidays with the royal family at the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England, when Diana decides to leave the marriage.

Jack Farthing is playing Charles, with further cast including Timothy Spall, Sally Hawkins, Sean Harris, Olga Hellsing and Thomas Douglas.

Prior to filming, Stewart admitted to nerves and excitement ahead of taking on the biopic. “The accent is intimidating as all hell because people know that voice, and it’s so, so distinct and particular,” she told InStyle. She continued, “It’s one of the saddest stories to exist ever, and I don’t want to just play Diana — I want to know her implicitly. I haven’t been this excited about playing a part, by the way, in so long.”

Neon and Topic Studios recently set a November 5 domestic release.

HBO Max Picks Up First Season of Daniela Vega’s Spanish-Language Thriller “La Jauria”

Posted on November 26, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Daniela Vega is maxing out…

WarnerMedia streaming service HBO Max has picked up the first season of La Jauría, Amazon Prime Video’s Spanish-language thriller starring the 31-year-old Chilean actress and mezzo-soprano singer.

Hailing from Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fabula, which made the Oscar-winning A Fantastic Woman, the series tells the story of the disappearance of a young girl, who becomes the center of a police investigation into an online game that grooms men into assaulting women.

HBO Max will premiere the eight-part series on December 16.

In addition to Vega, La Jauría also stars Antonia Zegers, while Lucía Puenzo is the director. Fremantle produced the show alongside Fabula and Argentine company Kapow. Fremantle handles worldwide distribution.

Amazon commissioned a second season of La Jauría in July after premiering it across Latin America and Spain. Chilean public broadcaster TVN and the Consejo Nacional de Televisión (CNTV) are co-producers.

“It’s a gripping, compelling and timely drama that addresses important topical issues regarding the epidemic of violence against women. We are confident HBO’s audience will be moved by the standout storyline and the powerful performances,” said Sheila Aguirre, EVP of content distribution and format sales, Latin America, international, Fremantle.

Pablo Larraín to Direct Kirsten Stewart in Princess Diana Film “Spencer”

Posted on June 18, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Pablo Larraín is taking on the portray of another legend…

The 43-year-old Oscar-nominated Chilean filmmaker will direct Kristen Stewart in the drama Spencer about Princess Diana.

The Steven Knight-scripted film covers a critical weekend in the early ‘90s, when Diana decided her marriage to Prince Charles wasn’t working, and that she needed to veer from a path that put her in line to one day be queen. The drama takes place over three days, in one of her final Christmas holidays in the House of Windsor in their Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England.

“I’ve always been intrigued and fascinated by the Royal Family and how things are in that culture, which we don’t have where I come from,” Larraín said. “Diana is such a powerful icon, where millions and millions of people, not just women, but many people around the world felt empathy toward her in her life. We decided to get into a story about identity, and around how a woman decides somehow, not to be the queen. She’s a woman who, in the journey of the movie, decides and realizes that she wants to be the woman she was before she met Charles.

The film won’t deal with Diana’s tragic death after she left that palace life, but will examine the fraying of the relationship with her husband, and her ferocious love for her sons Prince William and Prince Harry.

“It’s about finding herself, about understanding that possibly the most important thing for her is to be well, and to be with herself and by herself,” Larraín explained. “That’s why the movie is called Spencer, which is the family name she had before she met Charles. It’s very contained, set over a few days in Sandringham. They spent Christmas there for many years and that’s where we set the movie in the early ‘90s, around 1992, we’re not specific. It’s Christmas Eve, Christmas and Boxing Day, three days, very contained. We get to understand what it is she wants and what she will do.”

“How and why do you decide to do that? It’s a great universal story that can reach millions and millions of people, and that’s what we want to do. We want to make a movie that goes wide, connects with a worldwide audience that is interested in such a fascinating life,” he adds.

Production is expected to begin in early 2021 on the film, which Larraín will also produce.

Larraín previously directed Natalie Portman in Jackie. The film follows Jackie Kennedy in the days when she was First Lady in the White House and her life immediately following the assassination of her husband, U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1963. The film earned Portman an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Larraín’s other credits include Neruda, about poet Pablo Neruda, as well as the Spanish-language film No, Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, and The Club.

Music Box Films to Release Pablo Larraín’s “Ema” in U.S. Theaters Next Summer

Posted on December 12, 2019 by Tom Castaneda

Pablo Larraín latest film is headed to the U.S.

Music Box Filmshas acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the 43-year-old Chilean filmmaker’s Venice Film Festival drama Ema, starring newcomer Mariana Di Girolamo, Gael García Bernaland Santiago Cabrera.

Music Box plans to release the Sundance Film Festival-bound drama in theaters in summer 2020.

Ema charts a woman’s odyssey of personal liberation after a shocking incident upends her family life and marriage to a tempestuous choreographer.

“I feel proud and excited to be working again with Music Box Films, a wonderful company for a movie like Emain the USA,” said feted Chilean director Larraín. “It’s truly amazing.”

The distributor previously released Larrain’s 2015 film The Club.

“This is one of those films that you have to see to believe,” added Music Box Films’ president William Schopf. “Entirely singular, hypnotic, and compelling, it’s a film that absolutely seduces the senses.”

Emamarks the third collaboration between Larraín and García Bernal, after they previously worked together on No(2012) and Neruda(2016).

Karla Souza to Star in Amazon’s FIFA Gate-Inspired Drama “El Presidente”

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Tom Castaneda

Karla Souzawill be acting presidential…

The 33-year-old Mexican actress and How to Get Away with Murder star is set to star in Amazon’s FIFA drama El Presidente.

Andrés Parra (Pablo Escobar: El Patrón del Mal) and Paulina Gaitán (Diablo Guardian) also star in the eight-part series, which is produced by Oscar‐winning director Pablo Larrain’s production company Fabula (A Fantastic Woman), Narcosproducer Gaumont and Argentine producer Kapow.

Birdman’sArmando Bowill direct and executive-produce the series, which is inspired by the real-life characters and events behind the 2015 “FIFA Gate” corruption scandal.

The series explores the scandal from the angle of a small‐time Chilean football club president who rises from obscurity to become a key player in a $150M bribery conspiracy. Set against the backdrop of cities across Latin America, the U.S. and Europe, the series explores the sports scandal that rocked the world through the story of Jadue (Parra), a small‐time Chilean football club president who rose from obscurity to become a key player in a $150M bribery conspiracy at the hand of the infamous president of the Argentine football association, Julio Grondona.

It will air on Amazon’s SVOD service in more than 200 countries and territories.

“El Presidente will show the world, with loads of irony, how the most beloved sport of all is in fact a multimillionaire business run by a ridiculous mob we have never seen before: the Football Mafia,” added Bo.

Souza’s previous credits include Everybody Loves Somebody and 31 días.

Guillermo del Toro Wins Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for “The Shape of Water”

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Tom Castaneda

It’s turned out to be a monster night for Guillermo del Toro…

The 53-year-old Mexican filmmaker had a nearly perfect night, picking up his first-ever Academy Awards for his romantic fantasy drama The Shape of Water.

del Toro, who co-wrote, directed and produced the film, was named Best Director, an award he was predicted to win throughout awards season.

Additionally, del Toro’s The Shape of Water took home the night’s top prize, Best Picture.

The romantic fable was conceived by del Toro as a tribute to the monster movies he loved as a child, updated to tell a story about tolerance and compassion that could speak to a contemporary audience.The film ultimately took home four Oscars, the most of any nominee.

“As a kid enamored of movies growing up in Mexico, I thought it would never happened, but it happened,” said del Toro, in accepting the Best Picture award.

del Toro, who missed out on being 3-for-3 when he lost in the Best Original Screenplay category, urged other young filmmakers to take inspiration from his win, and “use the power of fantasy to tell stories about things that are real in the world.”

The award was presented by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, who famously announced the wrong Best Picture winner last year, naming La La Land instead of actual winner Moonlight.

He’s the latest Mexican filmmaker to take home multiple awards in the same night… Alejandro González Iñárritu previously scored three Oscar wins in 2015 for Birdman: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

One year earlier, Alfonso Cuaron took home two Oscars for his film Gravity: Best Director. and Best Film Editing.

Meanwhile, Disney/Pixar’s Dia de los Muertos-themed animated film Coco won best animated feature and its featured tune, “Remember Me,” won Best Original Song.

And, the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film went to A Fantastic Woman, from Chile, the story of a transgender person struggling in the aftermath of the death of a lover.

The film edged out Ruben Östlund’s Swedish satire The Square and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Russian fable Loveless.

Directed by Sebastián Lelio and written by Lelio and Gonzalo Maza, the film marks the first Chilean entry for the foreign language Oscar since Pablo Larraín’s No, and the first ever Academy award for Lelio, in his follow-up to the acclaimed film Gloria.

At Sunday’s ceremony, the film’s star Daniela Vega became the first openly transgender person to present an award at the Oscars.

Here’s a look at all of this year’s Academy Award winners.

BEST PICTURE
The Shape of Water

ACTRESS
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

ACTOR
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour

DIRECTOR
Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Allison Janney, I, Tonya

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

ORIGINAL SONG (PRESENTED TO SONGWRITERS)
Remember Me, from Coco (Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez)

ORIGINAL SCORE
The Shape of Water, Alexandre Desplat

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Blade Runner 2049, Roger A. Deakins

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Get Out, Jordan Peele

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
The Silent Child

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)
Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405

FILM EDITING
Dunkirk, Lee Smith

VISUAL EFFECTS
Blade Runner 2049

ANIMATED FEATURE
Coco

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
Dear Basketball

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
A Fantastic Woman (Chile)

PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Shape of Water

SOUND MIXING
Dunkirk

SOUND EDITING
Dunkirk, Richard King and Alex Gibson

DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)
Icarus

COSTUME DESIGN
Phantom Thread, Mark Bridges

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Darkest Hour, Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski and Lucy Sibbick

Sebastián Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman” Makes Oscars Shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film

Posted on December 15, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Sebastián Lelio is one step closer to a special date with Oscar…

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has whittled through 92 submissions to come up with its shortlist of nine titles to advance in the Best Foreign Language Film category this year, with the 43-year-old Argentinian-born Chilean filmmaker still in the running.

Sebastián Lelio

Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman, Chile’s pick to enter the race for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, joins other favorites like Ruben Ostlund’s The Square (Sweden) and Loveless from Russia’s Andrey Zvyagintsev in advancing to the next round.

Each of those was nominated for a Golden Globe earlier this week. As was Fatih Akin’s Germany terrorism drama In The Fade, which has seen its street cred solidified by the Academy with tonight’s shortlist inclusion.

The final five Academy Award nominations in the race will be announced along with the rest of the categories on January 23.

Films also making the cut include Berlinale Golden Bear winner On Body And Soul from resurgent Turkish director Ildikó Enyedi; and Venice favorites Foxtrot, from Israel’s Samuel Maoz, and The Insult by Franco-Lebanese helmer Ziad Doueiri.

The last Spanish-language film to earn a nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category was Ciro Guerra’s Embrace of the Serpent (representing Colombia) in 2015.

The Last Spanish-language film to win the Oscar in the category was Juan José Campanella’s The Secret in Their Eyes (representing Argentina) in 2009.

In 2012, Chile earned its first and only Oscar nomination in the category with Pablo Larrain’s No, which starred Gael Garcia Bernal.

Here’s this year’s complete shortlist:

Chile, A Fantastic Woman, Sebastián Lelio, director;
Germany, In the Fade, Fatih Akin, director;
Hungary, On Body and Soul, Ildikó Enyedi, director;
Israel, Foxtrot, Samuel Maoz, director;
Lebanon, The Insult, Ziad Doueiri, dirctor;
Russia, Loveless, Andrey Zvyagintsev, director;
Senegal, Félicité, Alain Gomis, director;
South Africa, The Wound, John Trengove, director;
Sweden, The Square, Ruben Östlund, director.

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