María Gabriela de Faría to Star in New Serial Killer Film “Romanticizing Monsters”

María Gabriela de Faría has landed a monster(s) of a role…

The 31-year-old Venezuelan actress and singer, who was recently tapped to play villain The Engineer in Warner Bros/DC’s Superman, will play the lead in Romanticizing Monsters, a new serial killer film from director Berkley Brady.

María Gabriela de FaríaThe film centers around de Faría’s character, Amelia Velez, a reporter and true crime podcaster investigating a series of missing person cases linked to an active serial killer that her boss and the police don’t believe exists.

With Justin Kelly and Katisha Shaw aboard to produce, the project is set to participate in the Frontières International Co Productions Market at Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal later today. Nicole Hilliard-Forde and Matthew Lessall are overseeing casting.

Soon to wrap her role in James Gunn’s Superman, the first title in a revamped DC slate, which is slated for release on July 11, 2025, de Faría will next be seen starring alongside Dylan Sprouse in the comedy The Duel, which Lionsgate and Grindstone Entertainment are releasing in theaters at the end of July.

Prior to Superman, de Faría was best known for a lead role in Lionsgate’s The Exorcism of God, a supernatural horror film co-written and directed by Alejandro Hidalgo, which was released through Saban Films after world premiering at Fantastic Fest.

In addition to the indie drama R#J, a modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the actress has also been seen on Fox’s Animal Control and The Moodys and Syfy’s Deadly Class.

Oscar Isaac to Star in New York Revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window”

Oscar Isaac is embracing the sign

The 43-year-old Cuban-Guatemalan actor will star opposite Rachel Brosnahan  in the first major New York revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window this February at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Oscar IsaacThe production, running February 4-23, 2023, at the BAM Harvey Theater, will be directed by Obie Award winner Anne Kauffman.

Described by BAM as a “sweeping drama of identity, idealism, and love,” The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window is set in 1960s Greenwich Village and focuses on a diverse group of friends “whose loudly proclaimed progressive dreams can’t quite match up with reality. At the center are Sidney and Iris Brustein, fighting to see if their marriage – with all its crackling wit, passion, and petty cruelty – will be the final sacrifice to Sidney’s ideals.”

The play debuted on Broadway in 1964, five years after Hansberry’s masterpiece A Raisin in the Sun and shortly before her death in 1965 at age 34.

The Sign in Brustein’s Window has not been produced on a major New York stage since then.

Kauffman presented an acclaimed revival of the work in 2016 at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre.

“We are in dire need of Hansberry’s voice…we know so little of her and define her by one play: A Raisin in the Sun,” Kauffman said in a statement. “Without a doubt Raisin is a masterpiece, but Hansberry’s evolution and contribution to this country’s culture, history and political motion stretches way beyond that astonishing accomplishment. Her work as an artist and activist is varied and deep. The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, written four years after A Raisin in the Sun, embraces human complexity and frailty while aggressively shaking us free of our delusions, yet very few people know of it. Now they’ll know.”

David Binder, BAM Artistic Director, said, “During the five years I spent working to produce the first Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun (in 2004), I fell in love with The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. I shared this passion for Lorraine’s play with Anne and the two of us spent many, many years working together to mount the show in New York. It’s an honor to present Lorraine’s beautiful, and rarely seen, play, finally, at BAM.”

The creative team and full company will be announced soon.

In addition to his numerous screen credits, Isaac has appeared on the New York stage in Hamlet, We Live Here, Romeo and Juliet and Two Gentlemen of Verona and Beauty of the Father, among others.

The original 1964 production of The Sign in Brustein’s Window starred Gabriel Dell and Rita Moreno. A short-lived 1972 revival starred Hal Linden and Zohra Lampert.

Fox Developing Latino-Themed Romeo and Juliet Project

It looks like William Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet is getting a Latin makeover…

Fox, showing commitment to getting a Latino drama series off the ground, is looking at an untitled project written/executive produced by Mexican writer-producer  Eduardo Cisneros (Instructions Not Included) and Jason Shuman (Role Models, Lone Survivor).

Romeo and Juliet

From 20th Century Fox Television, it’s described as a modern Romeo and Juliet tale set against the backdrop of Los Angeles’ new Latino wealth in the music and radio industry.

Fox recently took a stab at a  Latino-themed Urban Cowboy remake, which did not go beyond the pilot stage.

Romeo and Juliet has been a popular classic concept for the networks to exploit. This development season, ABC has Still Star-Crossed, a Romeo And Juliet sequel drama based on a book from Scandal co-executive producer Heather Mitchell.

Former ‘Juliet’ Hussey to Portray Lady Capulet in the “Romeo and Juliet”-Inspired “Social Suicide”

Olivia Hussey is returning to her Romeo and Juliet roots… And, she’s bringing her Romeo and her real-life daughter along for the ride.

The 63-year-old Argentinian actress, who was born Olivia Osuna, will be reteaming with her former Romeo and Juliet co-star Leonard Whiting in the upcoming film Social Suicide.

Olivia Hussey

Hussey and Whiting will be portraying Lord and Lady Capulet, the parents of the character based on Juliet in the thriller inspired by William Shakespeare‘s romantic love tragedy. Meanwhile, Hussey’s actress daughter, India Eisley, will portray Julia, the latest incarnation of Juliet.

Social Suicide centers on a police investigation of the murder-suicides of social-media-savvy teenagers. The police investigate the romance and tragedy through videos, vlogs and snapchats, but soon discover nothing was as it seemed.

Bruce Webb will be directing the film, which also stars Jackson Bews as Balthaza.

Hussey earned critical acclaim for her role as Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli‘s Academy Award-winning 1968 film classic Romeo and Juliet, winning a Golden Globe and also the David di Donatello Award for best actress.

She’s also well known for her role as Mary, the mother of Jesus in the 1977 TV production of Jesus of Nazareth. She last appeared in the 2008 films Three Priests and I Am Somebody: No Chance in Hell.

Grindstone Entertainment Acquires North American Rights to Leguizamo’s “Cymbeline”

John Leguizamo’s latest project will hit U.S. theaters in the near future…

Lionsgate’s Grindstone Entertainment has acquired the North American rights to the modern-day film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, starring the 50-year-old Colombian actor/comedian.

John Leguizamo

The film, which had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, centers on a battle between dirty cops and a drug dealing biker gang, set in a corruption-riddled contemporary America. Shakespeare’s play centered on the daughter of the British king Cymbeline, who discovers she has secretly married a man raised in her father’s court, resulting in his banishment from the court.

In addition to Leguizamo, the film also stars Ethan Hawke, Ed Harris, Milla Jovovich, Penn Badgley, Dakota Johnson and Anton Yelchin.

Cymbeline, which re-teams director Michael Almereyda with Hawke more than a decade after their collaboration on Hamlet in 2000, will be distributed in the spring.

It’s Leguizamo’s latest appearance in a film adaptation of a William Shakespeare work. He previously starred in 1996’s Baz Luhrmann-directed Romeo + Juliet, an abridged modernization of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

New Trailer Released for “Romeo and Juliet,” Starring Nathalie Rapti Gomez

Nathalie Rapti Gomez will be getting her William Shakespeare on this October…

The 28-year-old half-Colombian actress stars as Rosaline in Relavity Media’s film adaptation of the Shakespeare classic Romeo and Juliet. 

Nathalie Rapti Gomez

The film, which saw its trailer released recently, stars Hailee Steinfeld and Douglas Booth as the star-crossed teenage lovers.

Along with Rapti Gomez, Steinfeld and Booth, the film’s all-star cast includes Stellan Skarsgard, Damian Lewis, Paul Giamatti and Ed Westwick.

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes penned the script for this latest adaptation of William Shakespeare’s classic tale directed by Carlo Carlei.

Romeo and Juliet is set to open nationwide on October 11.