Maribel Verdú to Star as Ezra Miller’s Mom in Warner Bros. Standalone “The Flash” Film

Posted on March 13, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Maribel Verdú has landed the mother of a role…

The 50-year-old Spanish actress will star in Warner Bros.’ The Flash film.

Verdú, best known for her roles in Y Tu Mama Tambien and Pan’s Labyrinth, will portray Barry Allen’s mother in the upcoming Warner Bros. DC standalone movie.

Billy Crudup, due to a schedule conflict on the second season of Apple’s The Morning Show, won’t be reprising his role as Flash’s father.

Ezra Miller will be playing Allen/The Flash again. Cameras will roll in the spring to summer in London.

Andy Muschietti is directing off a screenplay written by Christina Hodson.

While the plot is under wraps, The Flash reportedly involves alternate dimensions with Allen trying to save his mother from being murdered. Also making cameos are alternate dimension Batmans, Michael Keaton from the 1980s Warner Bros. films and Ben Affleck from the millennium ones.

Guillermo del Toro Receives Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Posted on August 7, 2019 by Tom Castaneda

Guillermo del Toro is a star… And he has the hardware to prove it!

The 54-year-old Oscar-winning filmmaker saw his star unveiled on the Hollywood Walk of Fameon Tuesday.

The ceremony took place just a few days before the release of the latest film he’s written and produced, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

At the ceremony del Toro told the large crowd of fans to always celebrate their “weirdness.” He remembered coming to Hollywood as a young man and admiring the stars of Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney and Alfred Hitchcock.

“What I felt with those stars is there were people who were as weird as me and they were here. And it gave me hope,” said del Toro. “This star is for you, all of you who that feel weird.”

Fellow filmmaker and longtime friend J.J. Abrams celebrated del Toro at the unveiling.

“You are a mind-bendingly, brilliant creator, a curator of the most remarkable collection of art, a man who tells stories of unlikely heroes with hearts almost as large as his own,” said Abrams.

sel Toro also spoke about being an immigrant from Mexico, and encouraged everyone to believe in the possibilities in life, not the obstacles.

“Do not believe the lies they tell about us,” said del Toro. “Believe in the stories you have inside and believe that we all can make a difference.”

del Toro is known for a number of well-known films, including Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water and Hellboy, among many others. Shape of Water earned the filmmaker two Academy Awards for best picture and best director.

de Toro’s star is the 2,669th awarded on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Netflix Orders Guillermo del Toro Horror Anthology Series “Guillermo del Toro Presents 10 After Midnight”

Posted on May 15, 2018 by Tom Castaneda

Guillermo del Toro is expanding his partnership with Netflix…

The 53-year-old Mexican filmmaker, the creator of Netflix’s Emmy-winning DreamWorks Trollhunters, is creating a live-action program on the Netflix.

The online streaming service has ordered Guillermo del Toro Presents 10 After Midnight, its first original horror anthology series.

The series is described as a collection of the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s personally curated stories, described as both equally sophisticated and horrific.

The Shape of Water writer-director created the series and will write and direct certain episodes. In addition, he’ll handpick a team of top horror writers and new filmmakers to bring his selection of stories to life.

Guillermo del Toro Presents 10 After Midnight is a Netflix production. The project extends del Toro and Netflix’s collaboration that began with the animated series DreamWorks Trollhunters, which returns May 25 for the third and final season. The Emmy-winning Trollhunters is the first installment of a trilogy dubbed DreamWorks’ Tales of Arcadia. The next chapter, 3 Below, debuts later this year followed by Wizards in 2019.

Del Toro’s The Shape of Water, which earned four Oscars this year, including Best Picture, Best Director for del Toro, Best Original Score and Best Production Design.

His previous films alternate between Spanish-language dark fantasy pieces, such as The Devil’s Backbone (2001), and triple Oscar winner Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), and American studio movies such as the vampire superhero action pic Blade II (2002), the supernatural adventures Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) and the sci-fi monsters-versus-robots film Pacific Rim (2013).

Guillermo del Toro Announces Scholarship for Aspiring Mexican Filmmakers

Posted on March 11, 2018 by Tom Castaneda

Guillermo del Toro is ready to help the next generation of Mexican filmmakers…

The 53-year-old Mexican writer-director, who won two Oscars earlier this month, has returned to his hometown of Guadalajara with some news.

After his romance-fantasy film The Shape of Water took home four Academy Awards last Sunday, including best picture and director, del Toro attended the Guadalajara International Film Festival, where he’s imparting a series of free master classes to thousands of fans.

Following the first class on Saturday, the festival inaugurated a state-of-the-art cinema named after del Toro, and then organizers announced the creation of the Jenkins-Del Toro International Film Scholarship, a $60,000 annual award for an aspiring Mexican filmmaker to study abroad at a prestigious film institute.

“If we change a life, if we change a history, we change a generation,” said del Toro, whose genre filmmaking has inspired a new generation of talent in Mexico.

Del Toro and fellow countrymen Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity) and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Birdman) regularly produce films from up-and-coming Mexican filmmakers.

“The first push is very important,” said del Toro, who will oversee a jury that awards the scholarship at the Guadalajara film fest each year.

del Toro also announced that his At Home with Monsters exhibit will hit museums in Guadalajara and Mexico City next year. The exhibit features 500 drawings, paintings and concept pieces from del Toro’s works, including creepy life-size sculptures of monster figures. The collection, to be curated by Oscar-winning production designer Eugenio Caballero (Pan’s Labyrinth), bowed in 2016 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Guillermo del Toro Earns Three Academy Award Nominations for “The Shape of Water”

Posted on January 23, 2018 by Tom Castaneda

Guillermo del Toro is this year’s Oscar darling…

The nominees for the 90th Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday morning, with the 53-year-old Mexican filmmaker’s highly acclaimed fantasy love story The Shape of Water leading all nominees with 13 nods, including three nods for the man behind the movie.

del Toro, who was previously nominated for Pan’s Labyrinth, picked up three nominations of his own.

He’s nominated in the Best Picture category as one of the film’s producers, as well as Best Director for helming the film, and Best Original Screenplay for co-penning the script with Vanessa Taylor.

The Shape Of Water has been one of the frontrunners this awards season, and del Toro accepted the nominations with typical vigor.

“Thank You to the academy and my peers for this moment of joy in a 25 year journey as a storyteller,” tweeted del Toro.

Carlos Saldanha picked up his second career Oscar nomination, his first in a major category.

The 52-year-old Brazilian filmmaker, who was previously nominated in the Best Animated Short Film category for Gone Nutty, earned a nod in the Best Animated Feature category for helming Ferdinand.

Sebastián Lelio has picked up his first Oscar nod.

The 43-year-old Argentinian-born Chilean film director earned the nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film for his critically acclaimed film A Fantastic Woman, which is only the second film from Chile to earn a nod in Oscar history.

The Academy Awards — hosted by Jimmy Kimmel for the second time — will air live on ABC on March 4.

Here’s the complete list of nominees:

Best Picture
Call Me by Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
Phantom Thread
The Post
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread
Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
Jordan Peele, Get Out

Best Actor
Timothée Chalamet — Call Me By Your Name
Daniel Day-Lewis — Phantom Thread
Daniel Kaluuya — Get Out
Gary Oldman — Darkest Hour
Denzel Washington — Roman J. Israel, Esq.

Best Actress
Sally Hawkins — The Shape of Water
Frances McDormand — Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Margo Robbie — I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan — Lady Bird
Meryl Streep – The Post

Best Supporting Actor
Willem Dafoe — The Florida Project
Woody Harrelson – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Richard Jenkins – The Shape of Water
Christopher Plummer- All the Money in the World
Sam Rockwell — Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Supporting Actress
Mary J. Blige – Mudbound
Allison Janney – I, Tonya
Lesley Manville – Phantom Thread
Laurie Metcalf – Lady Bird
Octavia Spencer – The Shape of Water

Best Original Screenplay
The Big Sick (Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani)
Get Out (Jordan Peele)
Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig)
The Shape of Water (Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Call Me By Your Name (James Ivory)
The Disaster Artist (Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber)
Logan (Scott Frank, James Mangold, Michael Green)
Molly’s Game (Aaron Sorkin)
Mudbound (Virgil Williams and Dee Rees)

Best Cinematography
Blade Runner 20149
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Mudbound
The Shape of Water

Best Film Editing
Baby Driver
Dunkirk
I, Tonya
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Sound Mixing
Baby Driver (Julian Slater, Tim Cavagin & Mary H. Ellis)
Blade Runner 2049 (Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill & Mac Ruth)
Dunkirk (Mark Weingarten, Gregg Landaker & Gary A. Rizzo)
The Shape Of Water (Christian Cooke, Brad Zoern & Glenn Gauthier)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce & Stuart Wilson)

Best Sound Editing
Baby Driver (Julian Slater)
Blade Runner 2049 (Mark Mangini & Theo Green)
Dunkirk (Richard King & Alex Gibson)
The Shape of Water (Nathan Robitaille & Nelson Ferreira)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Matthew Wood & Ren Klyce)

Best Original Score
Dunkirk (Hans Zimmer)
Phantom Thread (Jonny Greenwood)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (John Williams)
The Shape of Water (Alexandre Desplat)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Carter Burwell)

Best Original Song
“Mighty River” — Mudbound (Mary J. Blige, Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson)
“Mystery of Love” — Call Me By Your Name (Sufjan Stevens)
“Remember Me” — Coco (Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez)
“Stand Up for Something” — Marshall (Diane Warren and Lonnie R. Lynn)
“This is Me” — The Greatest Showman (Benj Pasek and Justin Paul)

Best Animated Feature
The Boss Baby
The Bread Winner
Coco
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent

Best Costume Design
Beauty and the Beast (Jacqueline Durran)
Darkest Hour (Jacqueline Durran)
Phantom Thread (Mark Bridges)
The Shape of Water (Luis Sequeria)
Victoria & Abdul (Consolata Boyle)

Best Visual Effects
Blade Runner 2049
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Kong: Skull Island
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
War for the Planet of the Apes

Best Animated Short Film
Dear Basketball
Garden Party
Negative Space
Lou
Revolting Rhymes

Best Documentary Feature
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
Famous Places
Icarus
Last Men in Aleppo
Strong Island

Best Documentary Short
Edith + Eddie
Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405
Heroin(e)
Knife Skills
Traffic Stop

Best Foreign Language Film
A Fantastic Woman (Chile)
The Insult (Lebanon)
Loveless (Russia)
On Body and Soul (Hungary)
The Square (Sweden)

Best Production Design
Beauty and the Beast
Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Darkest Hour
Victoria & Abdul
Wonder

Best Live-Action Short Film
DeKalb Elementary
The Eleven O’Clock
My Nephew Emmett
The Silent Child
Watu Wote/All of Us

Guillermo del Toro Named Best Director at This Year’s Golden Globes

Posted on January 8, 2018 by Tom Castaneda

It’s a long overdue first for Guillermo del Toro…

The 53-year-old Mexican filmmaker picked up his first Golden Globe trophy at Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards.

Guillermo del Toro

del Toro, who’d never been nominated before this year, took home the trophy for Best Director, for his inspired work on The Shape of Water.

Known for his work on monster movies like Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth and Blade, del Toro is considered a master of the genre.

In The Shape of Water, he continues in that same world, telling the story of a lonely janitor who forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held captive. It was originally conceived with 1960s monster movies in mind, but transformed into something quite different as the deep relationship between its characters evolved.

“Since childhood, I’ve been faithful to monsters,” said del Toro in his acceptance speech, calling them “patron saints of imperfection.” del Toro noted that he has spent 25 years handcrafting “very strange little tales” that ultimately “have saved my life.” He closed by noting, “My monsters thank you.”

Meanwhile, Disney/Pixar’s hit Coco was named Best Animated Feature. The film’s director Lee Unkrich gave a shout-out “to the incredible people of Mexico” without whom he said the film would not exist.

The win follows best animated film honors from the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle.

Coco takes place during the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos. Directed by Unkrich and Adrian Molina, Coco follows a young boy, Miguel, who wishes to be a star-studded crooner of standards, just like his grandfather, the legendary singer Ernesto de la Cruz. However, music is of the devil in Miguel’s family, and de la Cruz is largely to blame for the curse. In order to make generational events correct, Miguel finds himself on the other side of life with relatives he’s only heard stories about.

The 75th anniversary Golden Globe Awards were handed out at the Beverly Hilton..

Here’s the full list of winners:

Best Motion Picture, Drama: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Actress, Motion Picture Drama : Frances Mcdormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Actor, Motion Picture Drama : Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
Best Motion Picture, Musical/Comedy : Lady Bird, Iac Films; A24
Best Actress, Motion Picture – Comedy : Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
Best Direction, Film : Guillermo Del Toro, The Shape Of Water
Best Limited TV Series/Made For TV Movie : Big Little Lies, HBO, HBO Entertainment / David E. Kelly Productions / Pacific Standard / Blossom Films
Best TV Series, Comedy/Musical : The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Amazon, Amazon Studios
Best Actor, Limited Tv Series/Made For TV Movie:  Ewan Mcgregor, Fargo
Best Screenplay, Motion Picture : Martin Mcdonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Supporting Actress, Motion Picture : Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Best Animated Film : Coco, Pixar Animation Studios; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Best Supporting Actress TV Series/Limited Series/Tv Movie : Laura Dern, Big Little Lies
Best Actor Motion Picture, Musical/Comedy : James Franco, The Disaster Artist
Best Original Song, Film : “This Is Me” — The Greatest Showman, Music By: Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Lyrics By: Benj Pasek, Justin Paul
Best Original Score, Film : Alexandre Desplat, The Shape Of Water
Best Supporting Actor, TV Series/Limited Series/Made For TV Movie : Alexander Skarsgård, Big Little Lies
Best TV Series, Drama:  The Handmaid’s Tale, Hulu, MGM
Best Actor, TV Series – Drama : Sterling K. Brown This Is Us
Best Actress TV Series, Drama : Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid’s Tale
Best Actress TV, Musical/Comedy:  Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Best Supporting Actor, Film:  Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Actress Limited Series TV:  Nicole Kidman, Big Little Lies

Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” to Show at the Telluride Film Festival

Posted on September 1, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Guillermo del Toro is heading to Colorado…

The 52-year-old Mexican filmmaker is among the directors taking the films to the Telluride Film Festival this year.

The festival, which always holds its cards close to the vest until the eve of the annual Rocky Mountain movie event — and which has become a strong bellwether for Oscar season with several Best Picture winners first showing there at the official launch of awards season — looks to have several major contenders in the lineup just released this morning.

del Toro will be bringing his latest film The Shape of Water to the film, after premiering the film to glowing reviews at the Venice Film Festival.

The filmmaker’s lyrical period fairy tale, starring Sally Hawkins, marks a return to Pan’s Labyrinth territory for the filmmaker.

It also stars Michael Stuhlbarg, Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer and Richard Jenkins.

There will be plenty of foreign-language Oscar hopefuls on display including Chile’s transgender drama Fantastic Woman, directed by Sebastián Lelio.

The 43-year-old Argentinian-born Chilean filmmaker’s film stars Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes and Luis Gnecco.

The film centers on Marina as a young transgender waitress and aspiring singer. Reyes stars as Orlando, 20 years older than her, is the owner of a printing press. Marina and Orlando are in love and they both plan a future together. After Orlando dies suddenly, Marina sees herself forced to confront Orlando´s family and fight again to show everyone what she is: a complex, strong, honest and fantastic woman.

Here’s the complete lineup below:

ARTHUR MILLER: WRITER (d. Rebecca Miller, U.S., 2017)
BATTLE OF THE SEXES (d. Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton, U.S., 2017)
DARKEST HOUR (d. Joe Wright, U.K., 2017)
DOWNSIZING (d. Alexander Payne, U.S., 2017)
EATING ANIMALS (d. Christopher Quinn, U.S., 2017)
FACES PLACES (d. Agnes Varda, JR, France, 2017)
A FANTASTIC WOMAN (d. Sebastián Lelio, Chile-U.S.-Germany-Spain, 2017)
FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL (d. Paul McGuigan, U.K., 2017)
FIRST REFORMED (d. Paul Schrader, U.S., 2017)
FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER (d. Angelina Jolie, U.S.-Cambodia, 2017)
FOXTROT (d. Samuel Maoz, Israel, 2017)
HOSTAGES (d. Rezo Gigineishvili, Georgia-Russia-Poland, 2017)
HOSTILES (d. Scott Cooper, U.S., 2017)
HUMAN FLOW (d. Ai Weiwei, U.S.-Germany, 2017)
THE INSULT (d. Ziad Doueiri, France-Lebanon, 2017)
LADY BIRD (d. Greta Gerwig, U.S., 2017)
LAND OF THE FREE (d. Camilla Magid, Denmark-Finland, 2017)
LEAN ON PETE (d. Andrew Haigh, U.K.-U.S., 2017)
LOVELESS (d. Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia-France-Belgium-Germany, 2017)
LOVE, CECIL (d. Lisa Immordino Vreeland, U.S., 2017)
LOVING VINCENT (d. Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, U.K.-Poland, 2017)
A MAN OF INTEGRITY (d. Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran, 2017)
THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE (d. Aki Kaurismäki, Finland, 2017)
THE RIDER (d. Chloé Zhao, U.S., 2017)
THE SHAPE OF WATER (d. Guillermo del Toro, U.S., 2017)
TESNOTA (d. Kantemir Balagov, Russia, 2017)
THE VENERABLE W. (d. Barbet Schroeder, France-Switzerland, 2017)
THE VIETNAM WAR (d. Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, U.S., 2017)
WORMWOOD (d. Errol Morris, U.S., 2017)
WONDERSTRUCK (d. Todd Haynes, U.S., 2017)

Two documentary shorts, HEROIN(E) (d. Elaine McMillion Sheldon, U.S., 2017) and LONG SHOT (d. Jacob LaMendola, U.S., 2017) will also play together in the main program.

Fox Searchlight to Release del Toro’s Cold War Drama “The Shape of Water” in December

Posted on April 21, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Guillermo del Toro is getting in Shape for December…

Fox Searchlight will release the 52-year-old Mexican filmmaker’s Cold War drama The Shape of Water on December 8, right in the wheelhouse of the annual film awards season.

The fantasy adventure film, which has been mostly shrouded in secrecy stars Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Lauren Lee Smith, Michael Stuhlbarg and Octavia Spencer.

Fox Searchlight describes the film as “an other-wordly fairy tale, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1963. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Hawkins) is trapped in a life of silence and isolation. Her life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment.”

The experiment apparently is an “aquatic man,” played by Jones, a frequent del Toro collaborator who has appeared in the writer-director’s Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy movies, as well as his FX series The Strain.

del Toro directs from the script he wrote with Vanessa Taylor.

Baquero’s “The Shannara Chronicles” Begins Production on Season 2

Posted on February 2, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Ivana Baquero has more to chronicle…

Production is underway on the second season of MTV’s The Shannara Chronicles, starring the 22-year-old Spanish actress, in New Zealand.

Season 2 picks up a year later with The Four Lands in chaos. The re-emergence of magic has the populace terrified, and an organization called The Crimson is hunting down magic users, using fear and intimidation to sow discord among the races.

Baquero, who won a Goya Award for Best New Actress for portraying Ofelia in Pan’s Labyrinth, portrays Eretria.

del Toro to Receive Filmmaker Award from Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE)

Posted on January 29, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Guillermo del Toro is getting a reel special honor…

The 52-year-old Mexican filmmaker will receive the 2017 MPSE Filmmaker Award from the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE).

The organization will celebrate del Toro at the 64th annual Golden Reel Awards on February 19.

“Guillermo del Toro’s relentless imagination and energy provide inspiration to all of us in the entertainment industry,” MPSE president Tom McCarthy said in a statement. “He is constantly surprising, challenging and delighting audiences worldwide. We are extremely proud to recognize his contributions to our industry and culture with our Filmmaker Award.”

del Toro’s directing credits include Hellboy, Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak, Oscar winner Pan’s Labyrinth and the forthcoming The Shape of Water. Earlier in his career, he worked as a special-effects makeup designer. He also has produced such titles as Biutiful, Kung Fu Panda 2, The Book of Life and Puss in Boots.

“Texturally and narratively, sound and image fuse in the cinematic experience,” said del Toro. “I have spent as much time on the mixing board as I have on a stage, shooting or in a color-correction suite grading the final film. To paraphrase Mark Twain: ‘The difference between the almost right sound and the right sound ’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.’ I am thus delighted and honored to receive this award from my colleagues and partners in the storytelling experience.”

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