Aliyah Camacho to Appear on Prime Video’s Graphic Novel Series “Criminal”

Posted on June 10, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Aliyah Camacho is adding criminal to her resume… Her acting resume, that is!

The Latina actress has joined the cast of Prime Video’s graphic novel series Criminal in a recurring role.

Camacho is among a crop of new cast additions that includes Gus Halper and Michael Mando.

They join the previously announced cast of Charlie Hunnam, Adria Arjona, Richard Jenkins, Kadeem Hardison, Logan Browning, Pat Healy, Taylor Selé and John Hawkes.

Criminal is an interlocking universe of crime stories based on the multi-Eisner Award-winning graphic novel series created by Brubaker and Sean Phillips.

Camacho will play Angie, Greta’s (Arjona) daughter. Angie is sharp, alert and maybe a little too adult for her age. Having lost her father at a young age, it is only she and her mom making their way through life. She has an idea of the kind of business her mom is in, no matter how much Greta tries to shield her.

Halper will portray Ricky, an unstable guy who likes booze, coke, and speed (and not within moderation), Ricky Lawless has known Leo since they were teenagers. Like Leo, he’s the son of a criminal — only his dad was the most-feared man in the city, Teeg Lawless.

Mando will play Jeff, a plainclothes Vice detective who pretty much hates all of humanity, and he’s looking to make a score screwing over anyone and everyone that is in his way. The kind of bad cop who uses his badge to shove others around and get them to do his bidding.

Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden will direct the first four episodes.

Brubaker will co-showrun with crime fiction author Jordan Harper. Brubaker and Harper EP alongside Sean Phillips, Sarah Carbiener and Philipp Barnett. Legendary Television will also serve as an executive producer. The series is produced by Amazon MGM Studios.

Camacho is best known for playing “Young America Chavez” in Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. She will next appear as “Emma Burdon” in the upcoming film Forty-Seven Days.

Adria Arjona to Star in Ed Brubaker’s Graphic Novel Series “Criminal”

Posted on May 28, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Adria Arjona is getting criminal…

The 32-year-old Puerto Rican actress has joined the cast of Ed Brubaker’s graphic novel series Criminal in a series regular role.

Arjona joins previously announced cast member Richard Jenkins.

Criminal is an interlocking universe of crime stories based on the multi-Eisner Award-winning graphic novel series created by Brubaker and Sean Phillips.

Arjona will bring to life Greta, a sharp-tongued top-level car thief and driver and the widowed mother of Angie. Ever since her husband died in a bank job gone bad, Greta has been battling with herself about how to escape the only life she’s ever known – and the only place she’s ever thrived. The problem is, she’s good at this. She’s looking for a big score, a lump of money she can use like a gun to shoot her and Angie out of this life and into another one.

Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden will direct the first four episodes.

The series is executive produced by Brubaker and Jordan Harper, alongside Phillips, Sarah Carbiener and Phillip Barnett.

Legendary Television will also serve as an executive producer. The series is produced by Amazon MGM Studios.

Arjona can currently be seen in Richard Linklater’s Netflix movie Hit Man starring alongside Glen Powell. Before that, she starred as “Bix Caleen” in the Disney+ hit series, Andor, a prequel to Star Wars’ Rogue One film.

Arjona played a recurring role in HBO’s True Detective Season 2, Netflix’s Narcos and HBO’s Irma Vep, a limited series based on Olivier Assayas’ 1996 feature film.

Up next, she’ll be seen in Zoe Kravitz’s directorial debut film Blink Twice as well as Los Frikis, a film she stars in and executive produces.

Additionally, she will star alongside Wagner Moura in the feature film adaptation of Francisco Goldman’s bestselling book Say Her Name and Jayro Bustamante’s dystopian thriller El Sombreron opposite Edgar Ramirez.

Prior film credits include Father Of The Bride, Sony’s Marvel franchise Morbius, Netflix’s Sweet Girl, Michael Bay’s Six Underground, Marco Perego Saldana’s feature The Absence Of Eden, Pacific Rim: Uprising, Life of the Party and Triple Frontier.

First Trailer Released for Guillermo del Toro’s Remake of the 1947 Film Noir Classic “Nightmare Alley”

Posted on September 19, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Guillermo del Toro is sharing his nightmare…

The first teaser trailer has been released for Nightmare Alley, directed and co-written by the 56-year-old Mexican Oscar-winning filmmaker.

del Toro’s latest project is a star-packed remake of the 1947 film noir classic, which is based on the 1946 novel by William Lindsay Gresham.

“I am prepared to offer you folks one last chance to witness this supreme oddity…. Is it a beast — or is it a man?”

So says Willem Dafoe’s carnival barker in the trailer, which also stars Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper and two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, who take over the roles originally played by Tyrone Power and Helen Walker.

Cooper plays Stan Carlisle, an ambitious young carny who has a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words. He hooks up with a psychiatrist (Blanchett) who is even more dangerous than he is.

The big-name supporting cast includes Academy Award nominees Toni Collette, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara and David Straithairn, along with two-time Emmy nominee Ron Perlman.

The film co-written by Kim Morgan marks Del Toro’s first time behind the camera since 2018’s The Shape of Water, for which he won Best Picture and Best Director Oscars.

He also produced Nightmare Alley along with his Shape of Water collaborator J. Miles Dale.

The film will open in theaters on December 17 via Searchlight.

William Morris Endeavor (WME) Signs Gina Rodriguez & Her Production Company

Posted on March 1, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

It’s a new endeavor for Gina Rodriguez…

William Morris Endeavor (WME) has signed the 36-year-old Puerto Rican actress and her production company I Can and I Will Productions, run by Molly Breeskin, in all areas.

The Golden Globe-winning former Jane the Virgin star was previously at Creative Artists Agency (CAA).

Rodriguez played the title role in the CW series Jane the Virgin for 100 episodes, winning a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Series Musical or Comedy in 2015.

Rodriguez recently starred in the Focus Features title Kajillionaire opposite Evan Rachel Wood and Richard Jenkins. The Miranda July directed feature made its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Rodriguez’s upcoming projects include the Netflix film Awake and the miniseries Lost Ollie for the streamer.

She has starred in Sony/Screen Gems’ Miss Bala and the Netflix feature Someone Great, a film in which she also served as a producer.

Her voice can be heard in the title role of Netflix’s Carmen Sandiego, and she also had starring voiceovers in Twentieth Century Fox/Blue Sky’s Ferdinand, Warner Brothers’ Smallfoot and Scoob, and Sony’s The Star.

In addition to her acting career, the native Chicagoan and NYU Tisch School alum is a driving force for inclusion and the empowerment of women in all ways, particularly in the entertainment industry. This passion led her to create her production company, I Can and I Will Productions, with a mission directly reflecting her commitment to create art and tell stories from those who are traditionally unseen and unheard.

The company has finished its second season of Diary of a Future President where Rodriguez directed, produced, and performed as the future president.

With her family, she established the We Will Foundation, which aims to uplift and champion underprivileged youth through arts, education, scholarship funding, and financial literacy.

Gina Rodriguez’s “Kajillionaire” to Now Open in Limited Theaters on September 25

Posted on August 30, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Gina Rodriguez’s kajillion will have to wait…

Focus Features‘ Sundance Film Festival acquisition of Annapurna/Plan B’s Kajillionaire, starring the 36-year-old Golden Globe-winning actress and former Jane the Virgin star, will now open in select theaters on September 25, a week later than originally anticipated.

The Miranda July directed film will hit PVOD around October 16. Despite that, the film’s marketing will be driven toward its theatrical release, and the movie will continue to be available to cinemas while it’s on PVOD.

Written and directed by July, Kajillionaire follows con artists Theresa and Robert, who spent 26 years training their only daughter, Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood), to swindle, scam and steal at every opportunity. During a desperate, hastily conceived heist, they charm a kind stranger, Melanie (Rodriguez), into joining their next scheme, completely shaking up Old Dolio’s routine. Her unlikely connection with Melanie begins to challenge Old Dolio’s odd and stoic reality — and she finds herself suddenly caught between the only family she has ever known and the prospect of total freedom.

The film also stars two-time Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins and three-time nominee Debra Winger.

During the pandemic when the big circuits were closed, Focus Features played two titles on theatrical PVOD: Jon Stewart’s political comedy Irresistible and the Nisha Ganatra directed music drama The High Note.

Focus Features Releases Trailer for Gina Rodriguez’s Grifter Comedy “Kajillionaire”

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Gina Rodriguez wants to be a kajillionaire…

Focus Features has released the first trailer for Kajillionaire, Miranda July’s Sundance comedy about a family of grifters starring the 36-year-old Puerto Rican actress and former Jane the Virgin star.

“Most people wanna be kajillionaires,” Dad says in the clip. “That’s the dream. That’s how they get you hooked — hooked on sugar, hooked on caffeine. Ha, ha, ha, cry, cry, cry. Me? I prefer to just skim.” His daughter looks up and says, “So do I.”

Here is your logline: Con artists Theresa (Debra Winger) and Robert (Richard Jenkins) have spent 26 years training their only daughter, Old Dollo (Evan Rachel Wood), to swindle, scam and steal at every opportunity.

“She learned to forge before she learned to write,” Pops boasts of Old Dollo. “Actually, that’s how she did learn to write.”

During a desperate, hastily conceived heist, they charm a stranger (Rodriguez) into joining their next scam, only to have their entire world turned upside down.

July wrote and directed Kajillionaire as her first feature since 2011’s The Future.

The trailer features “Mr. Lonely,” a song performed by Angel Olsen & Emile Mosseri, the latter being the film’s composer.

Produced by Plan B and Annapurna Pictures,Focus Features plans to release the film in theaters in September.

Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” Wins Top Prize at the Venice Film Festival

Posted on September 10, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Guillermo del Toro has reason to roar…

The 52-year-old Mexican filmmaker’s lyrical period fairy tale, The Shape of Water, was awarded the top prize Golden Lion at this year’s Venice Film Festival.

del Toro’s fantasy premiered on the Lido last week early in the proceedings, and left viewers swooning in its wake. It was among the best-reviewed films of the festival, and had one of the most emotional gala screenings in memory.

When the Lion was announced tonight, the press room positively erupted with joy.

The Shape Of Water, a Cold War-set parable that stars Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer and Michael Shannon, represents del Toro’s first time in competition in Venice.

The prize, he noted, is the first time a Mexican helmer has won the Golden Lion.

From the stage, the filmmaker said, “I’m 52 years old, I weigh 300 pounds, and I’ve done 10 movies. There is a moment in every storyteller’s life, no matter what age you are, you risk it all and go and do something different.”

Added the teary del Toro, “To every Latin American filmmaker dreaming of doing something in the fantastic genre, it can be done.”

He said he intends to call the statue the “Sergio Leone” and remarked how full the Sala Grande was of the things he believes in, “Life, love and cinema.” That echoed something he’d said earlier in the week of the film, which mixes fantasy, romance, thriller, and old-style Hollywood: it’s a movie that’s “in love with love and in love with cinema.”

Shape took 10 years of struggle for del Toro to get made, and he’s said it was the hardest shoot he’s ever had.

With his Venice appearance, del Toro completed, in a way, a circle begun by his compatriots and pals Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro G Inarritu, whose Gravity and Birdman, respectively, made big splashes in recent years on this island before going on to Oscar glory. The Shape Of Water is a movie we will be talking about all through awards season.

Backstage, del Toro spoke to the press and was asked about the significance of the win for genre movies. “It means a lot,” he said pointing to parables that are “artistic, beautiful, politically charged movies.” It’s about time, he said, that “we understand every vernacular in cinema done with intelligence and passion is valid.”

Here’s a look at the overall winners:

VENICE 74

Golden Lion
The Shape Of Water, dir: Guillermo del Toro

Grand Jury Prize
Foxtrot, Samuel Maoz

Silver Lion, Best Director
Xavier Legrand, Jusqu’à La Garde

Volpi Cup, Best Actress
Charlotte Rampling, Hannah

Volpi Cup, Best Actor
Kamel El Basha, The Insult

Best Screenplay
Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Special Jury Prize
Sweet Country, dir: Warwick Thornton

Marcello Mastroianni Award for for Best New Young Actor or Actress
Charlie Plummer, Lean On Pete

VENICE HORIZONS

Best Film
Nico, 1988, dir: Susanna Nicchiarelli

Best Director
Vahid Jalilvand, No Date, No Signature

Special Jury Prize
Caniba, dirs: Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel

Best Actress
Lyna Khoudri, Les Bienheureux

Best Actor
Navid Mohammadzadeh, No Date, No Signature

Best Screenplay
Los Versos Del Olvido, dir: Alireza Khatami

Best Short Film
Gros Chagrin, dir: Céline Devaux

Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film
Jusqu’à La Garde, dir: Xavier Legrand

VENICE CLASSICS

Best Restoration
Idi I Smotri, dir: Elem Klimov

Best Documentary on Cinema
The Prince And The Dybbuk, dirs: Elwira Niewiera, Piotr Rosolowski

VENICE VIRTUAL REALITY

Best VR
Arden’s Wake (Expanded), dir: Eugene YK Chung

Best VR Experience
La Camera Insabbiata, dirs: Laurie Anderson, Hsin-Chien Huang

Best VR Story
Bloodless, dir: Gina Kim

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.

del Toro to Direct Untitled Supernatural Romance for Fox Searchlight

Posted on May 7, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Guillermo del Toro’s next project is taking Shape…

The 51-year-old Mexican filmmaker will direct an untitled supernatural romance for Fox Searchlight with Michael Shannon is in talks to star.

The project, rumored to be titled The Shape of Water, is set in 1963 with Shannon playing the villain of the story. A mute laboratory worker, to be played by Sally Hawkins, falls in love with an amphibious man who’s being held captive.

Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer and Michael Stuhlbarg will co-star.

del Toro is directing and producing with Callum Greene, who worked with him on both Pacific Rim and Crimson Peak.

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