Trailer Released for Baquero’s MTV Sci-Fi Fantasy Series “The Shannara Chronicles”

Posted on August 30, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Ivana Baquero is making her English-language television debut on MTV…

The 21-year-old Spanish actress, best known for her starring role in Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, is starring in the cable network’s The Shannara Chronicles, based on the best-selling books by Terry Brooks.

Set thousands of years in the future, the sci-fi fantasy series follows a trio of heroes who’ve embarked on a quest to stop a demon army hell bent on destroying humanity’s world.

The heroes are Amberle (Poppy Drayton), an Elvin Princess; Eretria (Baquero), a Human Rover; and Wil (Austin Butler), a Half-Elf, Half-Human.

The trailer for the series debuted during the MTV Video Music Awards.

Jonathan Liebesman directed the first two episodes.

MTV is producing with Sonar Entertainment.

Baquero, who won the Goya Award for Best New Actress for her role in Pan’s Labyrinth, has also starred in The New Daughter and The Anarchist’s Wife.

Baquero Cast in MTV’s Fantasy Series “Shannara”

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Ivana Baquero is ready for her MTV…

The 20-year-old Spanish actress, who gained acclaim as the star of Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-nominated Pan’s Labyrinth, has been cast opposite Poppy Drayton and Austin Butler in Shannara, the cable network’s 10-episode straight-to-series drama based on Terry Brooks’ massive fantasy book series.

Written by Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar, Shannara is set in our world, thousands of years after the destruction of our civilization. The story centers on the Shannara family, whose descendants are empowered with ancient magic and whose adventures continuously reshape the future of the world.

Baquero will play Eretria, a young woman from the wrong side of the tracks who’s been forced to use her beauty and wits to survive. She’s a human who has been raised in a den of thieves known as the Rovers. When she rescues Wil from danger she becomes unwittingly tied to he and Amberle’s (Drayton) quest to save the Four Lands.

Baquero can currently be seen in Spanish film El Club de los Incomprendidos and recently wrapped Gelo, a Portuguese fantasy love story.

She will next be seen in Fox International’s My Other Me.

Mexico Selects del Amo’s “Cantinflas” as its Best Foreign Language Film Oscar Submission

Posted on September 13, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Sebastián del Amo is one step closer to a possible Academy Award nomination…

The Mexican filmmaker’s second feature film Cantinflas has been named by Mexico as its Best Foreign Language Film Oscar submission, just in time for the film’s theatrical push into Mexico and Latin America this month.

The biopic about famed Mexican comedian Mario Moreno aka Cantinflas was released by Pantelion Films in the United States on August 29 and has grossed $5 million stateside in 400 theaters.

del Amo co-wrote the script with Edui Tijerina.

Óscar Jaenada (The Losers, Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) stars opposite Michael Imperioli in the tale of the oddly mustachioed icon who rose from humble beginnings, earned the nickname “The Charlie Chaplin of Mexico,” and helped launch the country’s golden age of cinema.

Pantelion has been pushing Cantinflas hard for months, attaching its trailer to screenings of studio blockbusters and marketing to multigenerational Latino audiences.

The film opens in Mexico on September 16 via Videocine Distribucion and will be released in 14 Latin American countries during the next few months.

Mexico’s most recent submissions to earn an Oscar nomination were Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Biutiful in 2010 and Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth in 2006.

Derbez’s “Instructions Not Included” Makes U.S. Box Office History

Posted on September 29, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Sure, he may be a star in Mexico… But Eugenio Derbez is now making box office history in the United States…

The 52-year-old Mexican actor’s latest film Instructions Not Included, released by Pantelion Films, has become the highest grossing Spanish Language film ever released in the U.S., according to the film’s distributor Lionsgate.

With this weekend’s box office estimate of $3.38 million, the breakout family dramedy has earned $38.567M in its fifth weekend at the American box office.

Starring and directed by Derbez, the film has surpassed Pan’s Labyrinth’s $37.6M to become the new record holder.

It’s also the fourth biggest grossing foreign language film ever in the U.S., behind only Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Taiwan), Life is Beautiful (Italy) and Hero (China).

Word of mouth spread for Instructions Not Included due to a strong ‘A+’ CinemaScore, and the film expanded its U.S. run to target crossover audiences.

Made for only $5M, the film centers on a man (Derbez) who has made a new life for himself and the daughter left on his doorstep six years ago. His family life finds is threatened when the birth mother resurfaces.

The film was the big story coming out of Labor Day weekend for the best-ever domestic debut for a Spanish language film.

Navarro Officially Signs with Talent Agency William Morris Endeavor (WME)

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Jorge Dorado isn’t the only emerging Latino talent with a bright future in Hollywood…

Guillermo Navarro has officially signed with talent agency William Morris Endeavor (WME).

The 58-year-old Mexican cinematographer most recently shot the upcoming Pacific Rim, working with his long-time collaborator Guillermo del Toro.

Navarro’s credits include Pan’s Labyrinth, which earned him an Oscar for best cinematography; Hellboy and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn 1 and 2.

His directing debut is a 2012 music video for musician Mia Maestro titled “Blue Eyed Sailor,” co-directed with media artist Juan Azulay, also featuring his son Alvaro Navarro‘s cinematography.

He also recently directed three episodes of Hannibal for NBC.

del Toro to Produce New Film Version of “The Secret Garden”

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Guillermo del Toro’s Secret project apparently has Universal appeal…

The 48-year-old Mexican filmmaker’s latest project as a producer, a new film version of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel The Secret Garden, has been acquired by Universal Pictures.

The film’s script will be written by Lucy Alibar, who earned an Oscar-nomination for co-writing Beasts Of The Southern Wild. She’s expected to work closely with del Toro on the script.

In The Secret Garden, an orphaned girl is sent to live with her reclusive uncle and discovers a hidden garden containing magical secrets. This project will take on its own original path from other stage and screen adaptations seen in recent years. Rumor has it the film will be set in the American South at the turn of the 20th Century.

The last major adaptation of The Secret Garden was the 1993 Agnieska Holland-directed film for Warner Bros.

There had been a lot of interest in the project with the hope that del Toro would direct, but he’s so been too busy with his other projects, including preparing to release his latest film Pacific Rim this summer and working on a sequel, developing his critically acclaimed film Pan’s Labyrinth into a stage musical, and helming the haunted house film Crimson Peak. In addition, he’s set to direct the pilot for an FX series adaptation of The Strain, the apocalyptic vampire novel.

Caballero Receives Art Directors Guild Nod for “The Impossible”

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

Eugene Caballero is earning praise from his peers for his work on Juan Antonio Bayona’s The Impossible, about the 2004 tsunami…

The 42-year-old Mexican production designer, who won an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Art Direction in 2007 for his work on Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, has earned a nomination from the Art Directors Guild (ADG) for Excellence in Production Design for a Feature Film.

Caballero is nominated in the Contemporary Film category. He’s up against the production designers on Flight, Skyfall, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Zero Dark Thirty.

The ADG’s black-tie ceremony announcing the winners in all nine categories will take place Saturday, February 2, 2013, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills with Paula Poundstone serving as host for the fourth consecutive year.

del Toro Developing “Pan’s Labyrinth” for Broadway…

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Tom Castaneda

He’s already conquered Hollywood with films like Hellboy and the highly anticipated Pacific Rim… And now Guillermo del Toro is setting his sights on the Great White Way…

The 48-year-old Mexican filmmaker is developing his award-winning film Pan’s Labyrinth as a Broadway musical.

del Toro has already reportedly written a book for the stage version of the 2006 Mexican dark fantasy film, which centers on the young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer who finds refuge and terror in a fantasy world in 1944 Fascist Spain.

Paul Williams has just signed on to write the lyrics, while Academy Award-winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla is writing the music.

del Toro has been working quietly on the stage version of the film for four years, interviewing directors, librettists and composers.

del Toro, Williams and Santaolalla are also currently working on the music for the del Toro-produced animated film Day of The Dead, currently in the advanced stages of production.

“I admire and love Gustavo and Paul wrote the perfect album in Phantom Of The Paradise, which I have loved for decades,” said del Toro, who just wrapped Pacific Rim for Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. and who’ll next direct the haunted house tale Crimson Peak.

“I’m so excited about translating Guillermo’s magical vision into music and songs,” said Santaolalla. “I’m such a longtime fan of both Guillermo and Paul that to work on this with them is truly a dream come true.”

del Toro’s “Mama” Trailer Released…

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Tom Castaneda

He’s tackled the supernatural and dark fantasy worlds on the big screen… And, now Guillermo del Toro is getting his horror on.

Universal has released a new trailer for Mama, a horror film executive-produced by the 48-year-old Mexican filmmaker, who is best known for his films Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth.

The film centers on a couple, Annabel and Lucas, that is faced with the challenge of raising Lucas’ young nieces, who were discovered in a forest after being lost there for five years. It soon becomes apparent that the girls are being haunted by a ghostly woman they believe to be their mother. Meanwhile, Annabel plans to use the girls in a bid to bring back her own dead children.

Directed by Andres Muschietti, the supernatural thriller starring Jessica Chastain and Game Of Thrones’ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

The film is based on Muschietti’s Spanish-language short film Mamá, which was released in 2008.

Mama opens nationwide January 18, 2013.

del Toro Partnering with HBO on “Nutshell Diaries”

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Tom Castaneda

Guillermo del Toro could soon be taking HBO to the scene of the crime…

The premium cable network has optioned the 47-year-old Mexican filmmaker’s latest project, Nutshell Studies, a Hitchcockian drama about a 1950s small-town housewife who becomes obsessed with solving brutal crimes.

It’s a fictionalized TV adaptation based on Corinne May Botz’s The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, which was an investigation into forensic pioneer Frances Glessner Lee, who founded Harvard’s Department of Legal Medicine in the 1930s, and later became a captain in the New Hampshire Police. Along the way, she constructed a series of dioramas based on real-life cases, which are still used for training purposes today.

del Toro will direct and executive-produce the project, which will be written by crime novelist and Southland writer Sara Gran.

It’s the latest project from del Toro, who has been developing a potential Hulk live-action series for ABC. On the big screen, the Oscar-nominated writer-director, best known for such films as Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy, is wrapping up work on the sci-fi adventure Pacific Rim, starring Idris Elba, Charlie Day, Charlie Hunnam and Ron Perlman.

“It’s a very, very beautiful poem to giant monsters,” says del Toro of the film. “Giant monsters versus giant robots.”

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