Juan Pablo Raba to Star in the Action Comedy “Freelance”

Juan Pablo Raba is freelancing

The 45-year-old Colombian actor will star in director Pierre Morel’s action comedy Freelance.

Juan Pablo RabaRaba, best known for his roles in NarcosPeppermint and Coyote, will appear opposite John Cena and Alison Brie in the film.

Filming is now underway in Colombia on the film, which follows a special forces operator (Cena) who decides to retire from the Army and start a family back in the U.S. After several years of mortgage payments, school drop-offs, backyard barbecues and trying to conform to life in suburbia, he decides to come out of retirement to take a gig providing security for a female journalist (Brie) as she interviews a cruel dictator who may or may not have ordered the attack on him and his men. When a military coup breaks out in the middle of the interview, the three are forced to escape into the jungle where they must survive the elements, the military and one another.

Endurance Media’s Steve Richards is producing alongside Sentient Entertainment’s Renee Tab and Christopher Tuffin. Jaime Hernandez is executive producer.

The film is written by Jacob Lentz, marking his feature writing debut.

Raba recently appeared in the action-thriller The Marksman alongside Liam Neeson. His television roles include Ricky Ortiz in History’s military drama Six and Gustavo in hit Netflix series Narcos.

He can currently be seen in Netflix’s original Colombian series Distrito Salvaje, in which he stars and executive produces.

“So pleased to have such a great cast coming together on Freelance and to be working with such accomplished actors,” said Richards. “With Pierre Morel at the helm, John, Alison and Juan Pablo make a perfect trio for this fun adventure!”

Alejandro Amenábar “Thesis” to Get English-Language Remake Treatment from Sentient Entertainment 

Alejandro Amenábar is seeing his thesis revisited…

Sentient Entertainment has snagged the English-language remake rights to Thesis, a horror-thriller from the 49-year-old Spanish-Chilean film director, screenwriter, composer and BAFTA Award nominee.

Alejandro Amenábar

Amenábar’s original film won seven Goya Awards and other accolades upon its release in 1996.

The original film centered on Ángela (Ana Torrent), a student writing a thesis about violence, who comes upon a snuff video where a girl is tortured to death, soon discovering that the victim was an alumna of her school.

Sentient acquired control of the rights to Thesis from FilmSharks-owned The Remake Co. and Enrique Cerezo’s VideoMercury, in what’s described as a highly competitive bidding war.

Cerezo, who is the president of European football club Atlético Madrid, originally acquired the film rights when he purchased Sogecine, the Spanish production company formerly owned by Canal Plus.

Sentient’s Renee Tab and Christopher Tuffin will produce the remake with Rud and Aliwen Entertainment’s Lucas Akoskin, with Cerezo exec producing.

“Amenabar was ahead of his time in making Thesis. Our culture has become more fascinated and obsessed with sex and violence than ever. The desensitization of violence in the media has reached an all-time high and to devastating effect,” said Tab. “Through a university campus experience, we want to tell the next generation’s story as authentic as possible, touching on what students today are feeling and suffering in accordance with mental health and the pressures ahead of them. All of this is hidden in a great investigative thriller.”

The full-service management and production company founded by Tab in 2010 also recently acquired rights to Amenábar’s horror-thriller The Others, starring Nicole Kidman, and is developing a remake with Universal Pictures and Aliwen Entertainment’s Akoskin. The original was released by Miramax in 2001, going on to gross more than $200M worldwide.