Tag Archives: Paradise Lost

Bardem to Star in Peter Webber’s First Spanish-Language Film “Carteristas”

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Carlos Bardem has (pick)pocketed a new project…

The 53-year-old Spanish actor is set to star in the tentatively titled film Carteristas, the drama set in the capital of Colombia, Bogota.

Carlos Bardem

Peter Webber, renowned for his Oscar-nominated The Girl with a Pearl Earring, will direct the film, his first Spanish-language pic.

Carteristas tracks a 16-year old street urchin who, together with two pals, learns the art of pickpocketing from a master in the sleight of hand.

Bardem plays mentor to the 16-year old played by newcomer Emiliano Pernia, the son of Colombian actress Marcela Mar, who appears as his onscreen mother. Natalia Reyes and theatre actor Duban Prado complete the triad of friends.

Principal photography kicked off on Sunday, October 23 in Bogota with Colombian filmmakers Diana Rico and Richard Decaillet serving as associate directors.

“I’ve been visiting Colombia regularly for over a decade, and have shot some documentary material here,” said Webber. “The chance to make a feature film set in Bogota, one of the world’s most gritty and cinematic cities, is very exciting,” he added. Fluent in Spanish, Webber has previously worked in Japanese and Arabic.

Bardem, the brother of Javier Bardem, has previously appeared in the film’s Paradise Lost, The Debt and Days of Grace.

del Toro Comes Aboard as Executive Producer of “Viva”

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Life’s a drag for Benicio del Toro…

The 48-year-old Puerto Rican actor and Oscar winner has come aboard as executive producer of Viva, director Paddy Breathnach’s new film having its World Premiere here at the Telluride Film Festival.

Benicio del Toro

An Irish production shot in Cuba en Español, the film is about Jesus, a young man  growing up in Havana who works as a hair and make up artist for drag acts. What he REALLY wants to do is perform on stage himself, a development that leads to major conflicts with his father who has just been released from prison.

Hector Medina stars as Jesus with a supporting cast including Jorge Perugorria and Luis Alberto Garcia. Screenwriter Mark O’ Halloran also is featured in the film.

del Toro was most recently an executive producer of Escobar: Paradise Lost, a film in which he also starred that had its World Premiere at last year’s Telluride Film Festival.

He has produced other films in which he had roles including Che and The Wolfman, but his participation in a behind-the-scenes role on Viva appears to be his first in a film he does not appear since Lovesickness in 2007.

del Toro next appears in Lionsgate’s Sicario, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and will have its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival later this month in advance of its September 18 release.

He’s already getting Oscar buzz for his intensely searing role in the film.

del Toro Accepts Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival

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Benicio del Toro is a film don(ostia)…

The 48-year-old Puerto Rican actor accepted the Donostia Award for lifetime achievement at the San Sebastian International Film Festival on Friday.

Benicio del Toro

In his acceptance speech, del Toro paid homage to his native Puerto Rico.

“I want to dedicate this award to the piece of land where I come from, where I was born, where I learned to throw rocks and had them first thrown at me,” del Toro said at the award ceremony. “Where I learned to take risks and where I learned not to do things just to do them.”

Cuban actor-director Jorge Perugorria introduced the Oscar-winning actor as a “rebel of the profession [of acting],” just before del Toro thanked the festival.

Del Toro received the award before the screening of his latest project, Andrea DiStefano‘s Escobar: Paradise Lost in the festival’s Pearls Selection.

Earlier in the day, he spoke to journalists about how he respected the actors and actresses who came before him, how Steven Soderbergh‘s Che was his most “complicated” role and how not to be thin-skinned in Hollywood.

“An actor has to have a short memory. There’s a lot of rejection, and you can’t wallow in it. You have to have a short memory,” del Toro said.

But del Toro proved to have a long memory when he told an anecdote about seeing a picture of a haggard fisherman and upon asking what had happened to him was told, “the effort.”

“I look at this prize and I answer the same to myself — the effort,” he said.

del Toro to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at San Sebastian International Film Festival

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Benicio del Toro is about to add another award to his collection…

The 48-year-old Puerto Rican actor and film producer and Oscar-winner will receive the Donostia Award for Lifetime Achievement at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Benicio del Toro III

del Toro’s latest film Escobar: Paradise Lostwill close the Pearls Selection at the festival, which runs September 19-27.

Escobar, written by Andrea di Stefano, tells the story of young surfer Nick who thinks he has landed in paradise when he falls in love with a Colombian girl on a visit to see his brother who is living in the South American country only to have it change when he meets her uncle, Pablo Escobar.

del Toro has confirmed that he’ll come to San Sebastian to present the film and receive the Donostia at the closing ceremony. Di Stefano, Josh Hutcherson and Carlos Bardem will also be present for the film’s Spanish premiere.

del Toro is a favorite at San Sebastian where he has accompanied films from his career.

del Toro won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic as well as an Oscar nomination for his work in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s 21 Grams.

del Toro re-teamed with Soderbergh to star in the biography of Che Guevera Che. The performance won him the Best Actor award at the Palme D’Or Closing Ceremony at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, and again the following year at the Goya Awards in Madrid, Spain.

He starred opposite Emily Blunt and Anthony Hopkins in Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman and as Lado in Oliver Stone’s Savages.

del Toro was starred as Jimmy, the lead in Jimmy P. The film was screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. He was last seen in Guardians of the Galaxy a sci-fi action film for Walt Disney Pictures/Marvel Enterprises, which was released in the beginning of August 2014.

Next year he’ll play Mambru in Fernando Leon’s A Perfect Day and Sauncho Smilax in Inherent Vice, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

The actor is currently in production on Denis Villeneuve’s Sicaro.

Radius-TWC Acquires North American Rights to del Toro’s Pablo Escobar-Film “Paradise Lost”

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Benicio del Toro’s Paradise Lost will find itself in theaters in North America in the near future…

Radius-TWC has just closed a $2 million deal with Pathé for the North American rights to the 46-year-old’s Paradise Lost.

Benicio del Toro in Paradise Lost

Directed by Andrea Di Stefano, the film stars The Hunger Games’ Josh Hutcherson as a young surfer who visits his brother in Colombia and falls in love with the country, especially when he meets and marries the gorgeous girl of his dreams.

He then he finds himself thrust into the family business. She’s the niece of notorious drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, portrayed by del Toro.

The film also stars Brady Corbet and newcomer Claudia Traisac.

“We have been tracking this project for months and could not be more energized by Benicio’s outstanding performance, Josh’s extraordinary turn and Claudia Traisac’s star-making role,” said Radius presidents Tom Quinn and Jason Janego. “Di Stefano has delivered the goods and we feel privileged to be working alongside him on this fantastic film.”

del Toro’s “Paradise Lost” to be Filmed in Panama

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It looks like Benicio del Toro’s Paradise Lost will be found in Panama…

As previously reported, the 46-year-old Puerto Rican actor will be starring in Paradise Lost, a romance-thriller involving the niece of late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. And now official sources that the film will be shot in Panama.

Benicio del Toro

del Toro will portray Escobar, who is the subject of several projects including the film Silver or Lead and a drama series from Netflix.

The source didn’t go into detail about when the shooting would begin or at what precise locations, saying the production company has asked for “maximum discretion.”

But media outlets say some technical staff had begun arriving in Panama, while del Toro will be in the Central American country next week when filming starts in the western province of Chiriqui, which borders Costa Rica, and Cerro Azul, a mountainous area outside Panama City.

The film will be the directorial debut of Italy’s Andrea Di Stefano, who also wrote the screenplay.

Paradise Lost tells of the romance that develops between Pablo Escobar’s niece, Mary, and a surfer named Nick (Josh Hutcherson), who falls in love with the young woman during a trip to Colombia.

del Toro Starring as Drug Lord Pablo Escobar in “Paradise Lost”

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Don’t blame Benicio del Toro if he gets a little lost in his new role…

The 45-year-old Puerto Rican will be starring as notoriousdrug lord Pablo Escobar in Paradise Lost. And it looks like The Hunter Games’ Josh Hutcherson could be del Toro’s co-star. He’s currently in negotiations to join the cast.

Benicio del Toro

Directed/written by Life of Pi scribe Andrea di Stefano, the film isn’t exactly an Escobar biopic, but is instead being compared to The Last King of Scotland.

Hutcherson would actually be the principal character in the fact-based tale. He’d portray Nick, a young Irish surfer who visits his brother in Colombia. There he meets the love of his life — until he meets her uncle Pablo.

The film will begin production in Panama in March.

del Toro most recently starred opposite Salma Hayek and Blake Lively in Oliver Stone‘s Savages, where he played the henchman to Hayek’s drug-dealing character.