Netflix has put into development a sequel to the 52-year-old Mexican American filmmaker’s kids superhero film We Can Be Heroes.
The decision comes after the film’s success as one of its most-watched titles on the streamer during the holiday period.
We Can Be Heroes, which stars Priyanka Chopra Jones, Pedro Pascal, Christian Slater and YaYa Gosselin, is projected to be watched by 44 million households in the same time period, having reached No. 1 on its kids overall list in 88 countries.
The film is a spin-off of 2005’s The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-Dand his hit Spy Kids franchise. It was released on December 25, 2020.
Robert Rodriguez has delivered fans of The Mandalorian (and Baby Yoda) the ultimate Christmas gift…
The 52-year-old Mexican American filmmaker and director, and The Book of Boba Fett executive producer joined the Child (a.k.a. Grogu) for a holiday jam session.
Rodriguez, who also directed Alita: Battle Angeland Netflix’s We Can Be Heroes, tweeted a video on Christmas Eve that served as an early holiday present to fans asking what it’s like to be on set with the beloved creature at the center of Jon Favreau’s Star Warsspin-off. Strumming the chords of his guitar, Rodriguez joined the child for a short performance.
In the video Rodriguez strums out an excerpt of a snazzy number while the Child nods his head, smiles and coos to the beat.
Rodriguez directed Chapter 14, titledThe Tragedy, of the Disney+ series which stars Pedro Pascal in the titular role. The Mandalorian rounded off its second season a week before Christmas with a buzzy finale that had Star Wars fans celebrating the return of familiar faces.
The final episode of The Mandalorian season two saw The Child join Luke Skywalker (a CGI’ed version of Mark Hamill) and R2-D2 to train in the ways of the Jedi.
Sofia Vergara isn’t masking her excitement for her latest project…
The 48-year-old Colombian actress has teamed up with filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and his writer-director sister Rebecca Rodriguez to develop Zorro, a contemporary take on the classic masked vigilante character with a gender swap, for NBC.
The project’s creative team includes Vergara’s LatinWe production company, as well as Ben Siverman and Howard T. Owens’ Propagate. CBS Studios, where Propagate has a deal, will co-produce with Universal Television.
Co-written by the Rodriguezes and to be directed by Rebecca, Zorro centers on Sola Dominguez, an underground artist who fights for social injustice as contemporary version of the mythical Zorro. Her life is threatened by several criminal organizations after she exposes them.
Propagate set out to develop a television series re-imagining of Zorro with a female protagonist last season as one of the company’s first projects under its first-look deal with CBS Studios. The idea’s first incarnation, written by Alfredo Barrios Jr., also was set up at NBC.
Vergara and Silverman are frequent collaborators; they have teamed to produce together several projects over the past decade while Silverman was at Electus and after he joined Propagate, including the ABC drama seriesKiller Women.
Vergara received Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations for her starring role on ABC’s Modern Family. Her feature credits include the Warner Bros. buddy comedy Hot Pursuit, which she also produced. Additionally, she executive produced the Spanish version of Desperate Housewives.
Robert Rodriguez was attached to direct The Mask of Zorro and cast Antonio Banderas as the title role before leaving the feature project. In television, he developed and executive produced the series adaptation of his movie From Dusk Till Dawn for his television network El Rey and also executive produced the Spy Kids animated series offshoot for Netflix. He recently directed an episode of Disney+’s The Mandalorian.
Rebecca Rodriguez’s recent directing credits include episodes of TNT’s Snowpiercerand Showtime’s The Chi.
Dr. Robert Rodriguez is ready to fight the coronavirus pandemic in a big way…
The Latino doctor, a native of Brownsville, Texas, is among the health officials named to President-elect Joe Biden‘s COVID-19 advisory board.
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received their first briefing from the board on Monday morning in Wilmington, Delaware.The team will be led by three co-chairs: former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administrator commissioner Dr. David Kessler and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a professor of medicine at Yale University.
Thirteen co-chairs and members will comprise the board, including Rodriguez.
He graduated from Harvard Medical School, returned home to the Rio Grande Valley as the number of people dying from coronavirus soared over the summer. He volunteered to help with the critical surge in the ICU.
He told ABC News in July that he saw at least one person die daily from the virus.
“Everybody is wearing masks here. The spread is not because people aren’t being responsible. I think it’s largely due to socioeconomic issues,” Rodriguez said at the time. “The best way you can take care of frontline providers and everybody else here in the hospital is by taking care of yourself.”
Currently, Rodriguez serves as a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine, where he works on the frontline in the emergency department and ICU of two major trauma centers.
According to a release from Biden’s transition team, Rodriguez has authored over 100 scientific publications and has led national research teams examining a range of topics in medicine, including the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of frontline workers.
It’s not clear whether or not President Donald Trump‘s administration will work with Biden’s task force. However, Biden says he plans to reach out to governors about a state mask mandate as soon as possible.
Disney+ offered a special sneak peek at season two of The Mandalorian, starring the 45-year-old Chilean actor as the title character, during ESPN’s Monday Night Football.
The spot, which aired during halftime of the game between the Arizona Cardinals and the Dallas Cowboys, reveals a bit more detail of the plot for the new season, with The Mandalorian (Pascal) now seemingly on a mission to return The Child (aka Baby Yoda) “to his kind” while also searching out other Mandalorians who can help him.
“Wherever I go, he goes,” Mando says about his charge.
The upcoming season follows the successful Season 1 of the first live-action Star Warsspinoff series, which scored 15 Emmy nominations including for Outstanding Drama Series, and won seven. Shooting had already wrapped on the second season before the coronavirus-related production shutdown in mid-March. Work is already underway on Season 3.
The new season of the Lucasfilm-produced returns Pascal as The Mandalorian, aka Din Djarin, and The Child who continue to attempt to evade ruthless Imperial Remnant officer Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito). Gina Carano and Carl Weathers also return from Season 1, with cast newcomers including Rosario Dawson (reportedly as Ahsoka Tano), Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett, Katee Sackhoff, Michael Biehn and Timothy Olyphant among others.
Directors for the new season include Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rick Famuyiwa, Weathers, Peyton Reed and Robert Rodriguez.
Season 2 of the series will debut on Disney’s streaming platform next Friday, October 30.
The 30-year-old Mexican actress/singer has signed with William Morris Endeavor (WME) for representation in all areas.
González rose to acclaim after her roles in El Rey’s series From Dusk till Dawn, in which she collaborated with Robert Rodriguez. She further increased her star power in the United States after appearing in Edgar Wright’s 2017 summer blockbuster Baby Driveras Darling, the heist girlfriend to Jon Hamm’s Buddy, in the $227M grossing movie.
González has scored roles in notable movies, including Nyssiana in the Rodriguez-directed 20th Century Fox sci-fi movie Alita: Battle Angel($404.8M WW), Madame M opposite Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson in Hobbs & Shaw($759M WW), and the upcoming Legendary/Warner Bros. sequel Godzilla vs. Kongdue out on May 21, 2021.
She most recently starred in Sony Pictures’ Bloodshotopposite Vin Diesel and Guy Pearce, which earned her an Imagen Award nomination for Best Actress in a Feature Film.
González will next be seen opposite Rosamund Pike and Peter Dinklage in I Care A Lot, which will premiere at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival.
The Mexico City native studied at the American School Foundation, the Edron Academy, M&M Studio and Televisa’s Centro de Educación Artística.’
Her breakthrough came in the teenage telenovelaLola: Érase una vezin 2007. González also starred in numerous additional series in Mexico. She signed with Universal Music, and recorded five albums.
Her other feature credits include Robert Zemeckis’ Welcome to Marwen, and voiceover credits in DreamWorks’ The Croods and 20th Century Fox’s Alvin and the Chipmunksand Horton Hears A Who!
Robert Rodriguezis heading to a galaxy far, far away…
The 51-year-old Mexican American director/producer will serve as the director for Season 2 of Disney+’s The Mandalorian.
The Sin City and Spy Kidsfilmmaker tweeted a photo of himself with “the biggest star in the universe,” aka Baby Yoda.
“I am truly humbled to say I now have had the very rare privilege of directing the biggest star in the universe,” Rodriguez tweeted.
Production on the sophomore season of the Star Warsspinoff series already has wrapped.
Among the new faces for Season 2 are Rosario Dawson, Michael Biehnand a recurring Bill Burr. They join returning stars including Pedro Pascalin the title role, Gina Carano, Giancarlo Esposito, Emily Swallow, Carl Weathers, Omid Abtahi, Werner Herzog,Nick Nolte, Julia Jonesand Ming-Na Wen.
The live-action interstellar bounty hunter series premiered on November 12 on Disney+, the day the streaming service launched. Insiders have hinted that several established characters from the Skywalker saga’s feature films mythology will make appearances during the show’s sophomore season.
The 75-year-old Mexican American actor’s journey from a life of crime to a life in the movies is being told in a new documentary feature. And, now the film has landed on a UK release date.
Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejotells the story of how Trejo went from a life of crime – and his time in prison – to getting his acting break and how his career evolved from there.
The film has been directed by Brett Harvey, and includes contributions from Trejo himself, Robert Rodriguez, Michelle Rodriguez, Cheech Marinand Danielle Trejo.
The film has been picked up by Universalin the UK, which will be releasing it on digital download from June 22nd. No word yet on whether a DVD and Blu-ray release will follow.
Here’s the official synopsis:
From an early life of drugs, armed robbery and hard prison time, to the red carpets of Hollywood blockbusters and helping troubled addicts, this is the story of one of the most inspirational transformations of human character ever put to film. With a host of celebrity interviews, never-before-seen footage and personal testimony from Danny and his closest family and friends, audiences will witness the birth of aHollywoodicon who became a symbol of hope to people around the world. To this day, Danny continues to council recovering addicts and speak at state prisons. After 46 years of sobriety, he never forgets his roots and pays forward that which has been bestowed on him.
Tubi has scored the exclusive streaming rights to the 51-year-old Mexican American filmmaker and visual effects supervisor’s sci-fi horror film Red 11, as well as his docuseries The Robert Rodriguez Film School.
Red 11 is based on Rodriguez’s experiences in a medical research facility to finance his first feature El Mariachi.
The film, which made its world premiere at SXSW and went on to play in the Directors Fortnightsection at the Cannes Film Festival, is set in the dark, twisted world of legal drug research. College kids turn lab rats to make quick money. The film’s protagonist Rob (who is assigned the color and number Red 11), is trying to buy his way out of a huge debt to the tune of $7K. But things get surreal when he’s not sure if the hospital is really trying to kill him, or if it’s side effects from the experimental drugs.
Red 11 will hit the free ad-supported streaming service in the U.S., Canada and Mexico this summer.
Robert Rodriguez Film School is the companion piece to Red 11that explains the director’s guerrilla filmmaking process, while speaking to filmmakers and entrepreneurs alike on overcoming the perceived limitations of time, budget and other variables.
“I’m thrilled to be partnering with Tubi to deliver Red 11and its accompanying Film School docuseries free of charge and easily accessible to all audiences,” said Rodriguez. “I made both Red 11and the Film School series to celebrate the 25th anniversary of El Mariachi, and this project shows truly actionable methods using my no crew, micro budget filmmaking style that will inspire others to make their own films and have their voices be heard. These are both dream projects of mine, an entertaining culmination of ideas and ruminations on the creative process that also highlight the heightened sense of spirituality that comes from dancing with creativity when there is an absence of the usual financial resources. In other words, ‘low budget fun.’”
“Red 11 and the story of how Robert made this movie is inspirational to up-and-coming filmmakers,” said Adam Lewinson, Chief Content Officer, Tubi. “We are thrilled to amplify Robert’s message to the next generation of filmmakers as a part of our commitment to helping independent films find a wide audience.”
Tubi counts more than 20K movies and TV series – more than double the size of Netflix. This month it was announced that Tubi will launch in Mexico with TV Azteca, one of the two largest producers of Spanish-language TV programming in the world.
Tubi is available on Hisensetelevisions, Android and iOS mobile devices, Amazon Echo Show, Google Nest Hub Max, Comcast Xfinity X1, Cox Contour, and on OTT devices like Amazon Fire TV, Vizio TVs, SonyTVs, SamsungTVs, Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, AndroidTV, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
The 75-year-old Mexican American actor will star opposite Billy Zane, Randy Couture and James Russo in the action film The Protector from filmmaker Justin Lee.
Ed Morroneleading the film as protagonist Mickey Rome, an aging protection specialist who’s ready to holster his guns and head for retirement. When the agency he works for demands one last job be done, Mickey obliges and is sent to Central America to watch a husband and wife who have stolen $8m from a ruthless crime family.
Doctor Drew Pinsky, Johnny Messnerand Eddie Finlayare also part of the cast.
“This movie is a fun throwback to films from the ’80s like Lethal Weapon, Midnight Run and 48 Hours. It has action. It has comedy. It has dark moments. It was such a joy to get to work in a space I love so much with phenomenal talent,” said director Lee.
Trejo, best known for his title role as Machetein the Robert Rodriguez-helmed films, has previously appeared in Anaconda, Con Air, Grindhouseand Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
