Pedro Pascal to Star in Pedro Almodóvar’s Upcoming Short Western “A Strange Way of the Life”

Pedro Pascal is preparing to work with a Spanish living legend…

The 47-year-old Chilean actor will star in Oscar-winning director Pedro Almodóvar’s upcoming short Western A Strange Way of the Life.

Pascal will star opposite Ethan Hawke in the project.

Almodovar teased details of the storyline in a note put out by El Deseo, the Madrid-based film company he runs with his brother Agustín Almodóvar.

“A man rides a horse across the desert that separates him from Bitter Creek. He comes to visit Sheriff Jake. Twenty-five years earlier, both the sheriff and Silva, the rancher who rides out to meet him, worked together as hired gunmen,” he wrote. “Silva visits him with the excuse of reuniting with his friend from his youth, and they do indeed celebrate their meeting, but the next morning Sheriff Jake tells him that the reason for his trip is not to go down the memory lane of their old friendship…. I must say no more so as not to give away all the surprises of the script,” he added.

It will be filmed in the Tabernas desert, in Spain’s south-eastern province of Almeria, in a village built 50 years ago by Sergio Leone to shoot his dollar trilogy with Clint Eastwood.

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

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.

Guillermo del Toro

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

Banderas to Star in “Black Butterfly”

Antonio Banderas is ready to flutter into theaters..

The 55-year-old Spanish actor will star in Brian Goodman’s sophomore film Black Butterfly alongside Piper Perabo and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

Antonio Banderas

A remake of the French thriller Papillon Noir by Herve Korian, the script for the film was penned by Justin Stanley and Steve Hilts.

Banderas will portray Paul, a screenwriter with a bad case of writer’s block who befriends a grifter named Jack (Rhys Meyers). Perabo (Covert Affairs) is attached to play Laura, a real estate agent and love interest of Paul. After Paul invites Jack to stay with him in return for doing small tasks, the tables turn and Jack holds him hostage, forcing him to write a script. When Laura checks in on Paul, he takes her hostage as well. It soon becomes apparent that Jack may be a dreaded serial killer of young women that local police have been trying to track down.

Principal photography began shooting this month in the Monti Simbruini region of Italy, a favorite locale of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Westerns. Production will continue in May in studios in Rome.

Banderas most recently starred in The 33 and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.

Cruz In Negotiations to Star in “Gucci”

She’s donned Gucci on the red carpet, but Penelope Cruz may soon be appearing on the big screen in a film about the Italian family behind the legendary clothing brand.

The 38-year-old Spanish actress and 2013’s Campari calender girl is currently in talks to star in Gucci, according to The Wrap.

Penelope Cruz

Directed by Ridley Scott’s daughter Jordan Scott, the film tells the story of the late Maurizio Gucci, grandson of Gucci’s founder, as he becomes heir to the family empire.

Gucci was shot to death in 1995. His ex-wife, Patrizia Reggiani, was jailed for the killing in 1999.

The project, first announced in 2006, originally had Ridley Scott attached to direct from a script by Andrea Berloff. Several other writers have since been involved in the project.

Angelina Jolie was approached in 2009 to play Reggiani, who was jailed for 29 years for allegedly ordering the killing of her ex-husband, when Ridley was still attached to direct.

Reports of the film’s resurfacing came as Gucci makes a push to re-establish the brand as synonymous with Hollywood glamour, which it has been struggling to do since Tom Ford left the house in 2004.

The company has become increasingly involved in the film world. Gucci has given more than $2 million to Martin Scorsese to help him restore old films, including Federico Fellini‘s La Dolce Vita and Sergio Leone‘s Once Upon a Time in America.

The label also funds film scholarships and supports a weekly film series at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.