de la Huerta to Star in Modern-Day Film Adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

Paz de la Huerta is living the Dream

The 31-year-old half-Spanish American actress will star in a modern-day film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, according to Variety.

Paz de la Huerta

de la Huerta will star alongside Rachel Leigh Cook, Hamish Linklater, Avan Jogia, Fran Kranz, Charity Wakefield, Lily Rabe, Ted Levine and Finn Whitrock in the film, which completed production on Dec. 18.

Producers announced the project Saturday to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

The new version takes place in present-day Hollywood where fantasy and reality collide. It’s set in a world where glamorous stars, commanding moguls, starving artists and vaulting pretenders all vie to get ahead.

Casey Wilder Mott wrote and directed the feature, marking his directorial debut.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream will feature original music by Mia Doi Todd and Saul Williams, both of whom also appear in the film.

de la Huerta starred in Boardwalk Empire for two seasons. Her other credits include The Cider House Rules, Riding in Cars with Boys and A Walk to Remember.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been adapted into movies numerous times, most recently in the 1999 Fox Searchlight film, which included Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, Stanley Tucci, Calista Flockhart and Christian Bale.

Blahnik to be the Subject of a Documentary Film

Manolo Blahnik and his shoes are made for walking right onto the big screen…

The 73-year-old Spanish fashion designer will be the subject of a documentary titled Manolo (The boy who made shoes for lizards).

Manolo Blahnik

The film about the fashion sensation, whose first name became a cultural reference point after frequent shout-outs on HBO’s Sex and the City, will be directed by Michael Roberts.

It’s being dubbed as an in-depth portrait of the man who is regarded as a genius by some of the most revered figures in fashion and will offer a behind-the-scenes peek into his fabulous world.

Manolo will feature interviews with a who’s who of some of the most notable figures in fashion and entertainment, including Anna Wintour, Rihanna, Andre Leon Talley, Paloma Picasso, Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell, Charlotte Olympia, Iman, Jamie Preto, Naomi Campbell, David Bailey, Isaac Mizrahi, Joan Burnstein, Mary Beard, Colin McDowell, Penelope Tree, Prince of Lampedusa, Rupert Everett and Blahnik himself.

Production on the doc is currently underway.

Content Media has acquired worldwide sales rights to the film and will begin introducing Manolo next month during the European Film Market in Berlin.

“Manolo Blahnik is fashion royalty and the king of his craft,” Content Media film president Jamie Carmichael said Wednesday in a statement. “He also happens to be a wonderfully colorful and fascinating man, with a unique world view. Michael Roberts is a director with unparalleled access and understanding of the fashion world and the combination of both these golden elements will make for fabulous and fascinating cinema.”

For more than 40 years, Blahnik has been designing his shoe line, which has attracted a devoted following including the likes of Nicole Kidman, Rihanna and the Duchess of Cambridge.

Banderas to Receive Honorary Goya Award for His “Stellar Career”

Antonio Banderas has earned an extra special prize…

The Spanish Film Academy will honor the 54-year-old Spanish actor with an honorary Goya Award for the organization calls a “stellar career on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Antonio Banderas

The academy’s board of directors unanimously voted to honor Banderas for having “developed a versatile trajectory as an actor, have shown his own point of view as a director and having immersed himself in the role of producer to support national values.”

Calling him a hometown-Malaga boy “without borders,” the academy applauded his career punctuated by “risks and commitment.”

Banderas rose to acclaim in some of the most exemplary roles in Pedro Almodovar’s earlier works like Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down, Labyrinth of Passion, Matador, Law of Desire and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

But he also forged a successful career in Hollywood with films like Zorro, Shrek, Philadelphia, Desperados and Interview with a Vampire.

Banderas, who has directed the films Crazy in Alabama and Summer Rain, recently returned to Spain with his latest Spanish project, the apocalyptic science fiction Automata, which he presented at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Banderas is currently filming Hugh Hudson’s The Master of Altamira alongside Rupert Everett and Golshifteh Farahani.

Banderas’ special presentation will take place next February at Spain’s premiere film gala in Madrid.