Isaac to Star in “Hamlet” at the Public Theater

Posted on February 24, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Oscar Isaac is taking on The Bard’s work…

The 37-year-old Guatemalan-Cuban American actor, who most recently starred in the massive blockbuster Star Wars: The Force Awakens, will appear in Hamlet beginning in June at the Public Theater.

Isaac will play the melancholy Dane, in a staging of the William Shakespeare tragedy by Sam Gold.

This Hamlet was announced last year as a production of Theatre For A New Audience, the eminent Brooklyn-based company that focuses on classics. Gold – who has a growing reputation for insightful productions of new work such as Fun Home along with a distinctly non-traditional approach to classics – withdrew the production from TFNA last June, reportedly due to concerns over support for his vision of the play. He and Isaac then brought the production to the Public.

Hamlet is slated to begin previews June 20, open July 13 and run through September 3, an unusually long run for the Public. Making his New York stage debut will be Keegan-Michael Key as Hamlet’s trusted friend Horatio. Also cast in the production are Peter Friedman (The Affair, The Path) as Polonius, Gayle Rankin (upcoming in the Netflix series Glow) as Ophelia, Roberta Colindrez as Rosencrantz, Matthew Saldívar as Guildenstern, and Anatol Yusef as Laertes.

David Zinn will design the set, with costumes by Kaye Voyce, lighting by Mark Barton, sound by Bray Poor and musical direction, composition, and performance by cellist Ernst Reijseger.

Isaac to Star in the Spy Thriller “The Garbo Project”

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Oscar Issac is going to war…

The 37-year-old Guatemalan and Cuban American actor will star in The Garbo Project, a spy thriller in the works from Storyscape Entertainment.

Scripted by William Wheeler, the film is set during World War II. It’s based on the true story of Juan Pujol Garcia, an eccentric double-agent who, with no military or covert training, somehow persuaded both the Germans and the British to hire him as a spy. As it turned out, his real allegiance was to England, and working closely with MI5, he created a fictional network of 27 spies said to be spread out over England, Scotland, and Ireland. His ruse enabled the English to deceive the Germans about the invasion of Normandy.

Isaac, who broke out after his role in Bourne Legacy, has starred in the blockbuster hits X-Men: Apocalypse and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Isaac in Talks to Star in Steven Spielberg’s “The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara”

Posted on July 15, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Oscar Isaac is Amblin-g for a new role…

The 37-year-old Guatemalan and Cuban American actor and Star Wars star is in talks to star opposite Mark Rylance in Amblin Entertainment’s The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara.

Steven Spielberg is putting together the true-life religious drama to tackle after he wraps the sci-fi thriller Ready Player One.

Tony Kushner, who worked on Spielberg’s Lincoln and Munich, wrote the script adapting the David Kertzer novel, which has been in development with the filmmaker since 2008.

The true story centers on a 6-year-old Jewish boy in Bologna, Italy, in 1858 who was seized by the police and removed from his parents’ home. He was subsequently raised as a Catholic and became a priest in the Augustinian order. Rylance will star as Pope Pius IX.

Isaac had a breakout year in 2015 with a buzzy turn in Alex Garland’s sci-fi thriller Ex Machina then scene-stealing work in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He last appeared as the villain in X-Men: Apocalypse.

Isaac recently wrapped Star Wars: Episode VIII as well as the Paramount sci-fi thriller Annihilation, which reteamed him with Garland.

Disney Unveils Trailer for Luna’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”

Posted on April 7, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Diego Luna is going Rogue…

Disney premiered the long-awaited trailer for its first Star Wars spinoff feature, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, starring the 36-year-old Mexican actor, on Good Morning America.

Directed by Gareth Edwards, Rogue One takes place prior to 1977’s Star Wars and revolves around a gang of rebel spies who steal the Death Star plans, which are ultimately uploaded on R2-D2.

Details on the film have been tight, and the teaser comes as a big revelation of what’s to come. Apparently, neither Jedis nor the Force will appear in this movie, although there have been whispers about a Darth Vader cameo.

Oscar nominee Felicity Jones plays chief spy Jyn Erso, while Riz Ahmed and Luna portray resistance fighters assisting in the heist. Ben Mendelsohn portrays a dominant Imperial villain. Forest Whitaker, Alan Tudyk, Donnie Yen and Mads Mikkelsen also star. In addition, there’s a number of AT-ATs wreaking havoc on a tropical beach. But the cameo that has Star Wars fans giddy this morning is red-haired rebel leader Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), last seen in 1983’s Return of the Jedi and 2005’s Revenge of the Sith. She calls Jones’ Erso “reckless, aggressive and undisciplined”.

Chris Weitz and Gary Whitta wrote the Rogue One screenplay based on an idea by John Knoll. Similar to last year with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Christmas comes early with Rogue One opening on December 16. Force Awakens broke the domestic box office record with $247.97 million on its way to $2 billion worldwide.

The movie marks the first time that the Star Wars story has been told on the big screen outside the confines of its episodic structure.

Isaac to Star in Theatre for a New Audience’s Production of “Hamlet”

Posted on April 3, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Oscar Isaac is about to Ham(let) it up…

The 37-year-old Guatemalan and Cuban American actor will play William Shakespeare’s melancholy Prince of Denmark in a new production of Hamlet for the Brooklyn-based company Theatre for a New Audience. It’s more than a year off, but the play, to be staged by Sam Gold, will certainly be a big draw for artistic director Jeffrey Horowitz’s celebrated and increasingly ambitious company, which presents in its sleek new headquarters, the Polonsky Shakespeare Center.

Hamlet is slated to begin previews June 4, 2017 for an opening June 22 and run through July 30. The pairing of star (Star Wars: The Force Awakens; A Most Violent Year; Inside Llewyn Davis) director (Tony Award winner for staging the Tony Winning best musical Fun Home) should continue TFNA’s upward profile — and demonstrate that the prospect of a Tony nomination isn’t the only reason marquee actors are drawn to the stage or even to Brooklyn

Isaac and Gold previously worked together on Zoe Kazan’s We Live Here, in 2011.

Hamlet is their first Shakespeare collaboration and their first production with TFNA.

“Oscar is celebrated for the honesty, authenticity, and intensity of his performances,” Horowitz said in announcing the production Sunday afternoon, “and Hamlet marks his long-desired return to theater after an impressive series of starring film and television roles. Sam is renowned for the transparent subtlety and nuance of the theatrical worlds he creates. Together [they] will explore the ‘undiscovered country’ of Hamlet’s world which begins, of course, with the first words of the play, ‘Who’s there?’”

Casting and other creative decisions will be announced later.

Isaac In Talks to Star in the Post-Apocalyptic Horror Adventure “Annihilation”

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Oscar Isaac is facing annihilation…

The 37-year-old Guatemalan and Cuban American actor is in talks to reteam with Alex Garland, his director for the acclaimed sci-fi movie Ex Machina, for Annihilation, a post-apocalyptic horror adventure feature for Paramount Pictures.

Isaac, who was a standout as X-wing pilot Poe Dameron in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens, would star opposite Natalie Portman and Gina Rodriguez in the film, which is an adaptation of a book by Jeff VanderMeer.

The story follows a biologist, to be played by Portman, as she embarks on a four-person expedition into Area X, a territory cut off from civilization. While there, she must deal with a mysterious contamination, disappearing colleagues, a deadly animal and a being known as the Crawler, all while searching for clues regarding her husband’s disappearance.

Isaac will play Portman’s husband, who may not have disappeared after all.

Isaac starred with Alicia Vikander and Domhnall Gleeson in Ex Machina, in which he played the Steve Jobs-like owner of a search engine tech company creating artificial intelligence.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, meanwhile, blasted box office records and currently has grossed over $933 million domestically, $2 billion worldwide

Baccarin Earns First-Ever MTV Movie Awards Nominations

Posted on March 9, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Morena Baccarin has a (Dead)pool of reasons to celebrate…

The 36-year-old Brazilian-American actress has earned her first ever MTV Movie Awards nominations for playing Ryan Reynolds’ love interest in Deadpool.

The former Homeland star is nominated for Best Female Performance, where she’ll face stiff competition from Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect 2), Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road), Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and Jennifer Lawrence (Joy).

Baccarin and Reynolds are also nominated in the Best Kiss category.

The awards show will be hosted by Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart on Sunday, April 10.

Here are this year’s MTV Movie Awards nominees:

MOVIE OF THE YEAR

Avengers: Age of Ultron
Creed
Deadpool
Jurassic World
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Straight Outta Compton

TRUE STORY

Concussion
Joy
Steve Jobs
Straight Outta Compton
The Big Short
The Revenant

DOCUMENTARY

Amy
Cartel Land
He Named Me Malala
The Hunting Ground
The Wolfpack
What Happened, Miss Simone?

BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE

Alicia Vikander – Ex Machina
Anna Kendrick – Pitch Perfect 2
Charlize Theron – Mad Max: Fury Road
Daisy Ridley – Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Jennifer Lawrence – Joy
Morena Baccarin – Deadpool

BEST MALE PERFORMANCE

Chris Pratt – Jurassic World
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant
Matt Damon – The Martian
Michael B. Jordan – Creed
Ryan Reynolds – Deadpool
Will Smith – Concussion

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE

Amy Schumer – Trainwreck
Brie Larson – Room
Daisy Ridley – Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Dakota Johnson – Fifty Shades of Grey
John Boyega – Star Wars: The Force Awakens
O’Shea Jackson Jr. – Straight Outta Compton

BEST COMEDIC PERFORMANCE

Amy Schumer – Trainwreck
Kevin Hart – Ride Along 2
Melissa McCarthy – Spy
Rebel Wilson – Pitch Perfect 2
Ryan Reynolds – Deadpool
Will Ferrell – Get Hard

BEST ACTION PERFORMANCE

Chris Pratt – Jurassic World
Dwayne Johnson – San Andreas
Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
John Boyega – Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Ryan Reynolds – Deadpool
Vin Diesel – Furious 7

BEST HERO

Charlize Theron – Mad Max: Fury Road
Chris Evans – Avengers: Age of Ultron
Daisy Ridley – Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Dwayne Johnson – San Andreas
Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
Paul Rudd – Ant-Man

BEST VILLAIN

Adam Driver – Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Ed Skrein – Deadpool
Hugh Keays-Byrne – Mad Max: Fury Road
James Spader – Avengers: Age of Ultron
Samuel L. Jackson – Kingsman: The Secret Service
Tom Hardy – The Revenant

BEST VIRTUAL PERFORMANCE

Amy Poehler – Inside Out
Andy Serkis – Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Jack Black – Kung Fu Panda 3
James Spader – Avengers: Age of Ultron
Lupita Nyong’o – Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Seth MacFarlane – Ted 2

ENSEMBLE CAST

Avengers: Age of Ultron
Furious 7
Pitch Perfect 2
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
Trainwreck

BEST KISS

Amy Schumer & Bill Hader – Trainwreck
Dakota Johnson & Jamie Dornan – Fifty Shades of Grey
Leslie Mann & Chris Hemsworth – Vacation
Margot Robbie & Will Smith – Focus
Morena Baccarin & Ryan Reynolds – Deadpool
Rebel Wilson & Adam DeVine – Pitch Perfect 2

BEST FIGHT

Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) vs. Ajax (Ed Skrein) – Deadpool
Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) vs. The Bear – The Revenant
Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) vs. Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) – Mad Max: Fury Road
Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) vs. Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) – Avengers: Age of Ultron
Rey (Daisy Ridley) vs. Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) – Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) vs. Lia (Nargis Fakhri) – Spy

Miranda In Talks to Join Walt Disney Studios’ “Mary Poppins” Sequel

Posted on February 25, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Lin-Manuel Miranda may be ready for a little Chim Chim Cher-ee.

The 36-year-old Puerto Rican composer, lyricist, rapper and actor, best known for creating and starring in the Broadway musicals In the Heights and Hamilton, is in talks to join the Walt Disney Studios’ planned sequel to Mary Poppins. Emily Blunt is in talks for the lead role, played by Julie Andrews in the 1964 film.

Disney had no comment, but a source with knowledge of the project says the untitled film will connect with Mary’s charges, Jane and Michael Banks, now grown and with Michael’s own three kids in need of a nanny. Mary and her “lamplighter” friend Jack — kin to Bert the chimney sweep played by Dick Van Dyke opposite Andrews in the film — help the family rediscover the joy and wonder missing from their lives.

Miranda’s Disney ties already include the bar scene music for Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the score for the animated film Moana, coming in November.

According to the source, the new film will be set in Depression-era London and include material drawn from the seven Mary Poppins books writer P.L. Travers’ published between 1935 and 1988 following the initial novel.

Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman will be composing original songs and an all-new score. David Magee is attached to write the screenplay. Rob Marshall is attached to direct.

Disney and Marshall are working with the Travers estate, and Mary Poppins composer Richard Sherman is reputedly aware and supportive of the project. Word of the talks first appeared earlier today in Variety.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” Starring Isaac, Breaks Box Office Records

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

The Force has proven to be strong for Oscar Isaac…

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, starring the 36-year-old Guatemalan and Cuban American actor as Resistance fighter Poe Dameron, broke every major opening record at the box office.

The film, which introduced Isaac, Daisy Ridley and John Boyega as new heroes in a galaxy far, far away, tallied $238 million for the weekend, according to studio estimates. It destroys the record of $208.8 million set in June by Jurassic World.

“We’re in territory that we’ve never seen in December,” says Rentrak senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “The enormity of this record-breaking weekend cannot be overstated. This is a true watershed event.

Even more impressive: The Force Awakens annihilated the opening-day and all-time Friday records with $120.5 million, helped by a monster $57 million in Thursday night previews. It breaks the $91.1 million mark set by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 in 2011, and the new Star Wars is the first movie to surpass $100 million in a single day.

It also set a new high for highest theater average with $57,500 in 4,134 theaters, and posted an extra $279 million internationally (except for China, where it will open in January) for a $517 million global debut.

The blockbuster was buoyed by universal raves: Critics heaped praise — a 95% “fresh” rating on RottenTomatoes.com — and audiences gave it an A at CinemaScore. Add to that acclaim Disney’s “pitch-perfect” marketing, word of mouth through social media, great casting and repeat viewings, and everything came together for an “unprecedented” opening, Dergarabedian says. “If any of those had not been firing properly, you would not be seeing these numbers. The brand can get you really far, but the movie itself had to deliver.

Final figures are expected Monday.

Isaac Covers Bill Murray’s Star Wars Theme Parody from Saturday Night Live

Posted on December 18, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

It appears the force has awakened Oscar Isaac…

The 36-year-old Guatemalan and Cuban American actor, currently starring as Poe Dameron in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, recently covered Bill Murray’s Star Wars theme parody from the iconic Saturday Night Live lounge singer sketch.

Isaac, who earned a Golden Globe nod for his role in the comedy-drama Inside Llewyn Davis, is a talented musician. The Juilliard School graduate starred in the film10 Years, in which he played a musician. He performed his own song “Never Had” in the film.

Currently covering January’s GQ, Isaac discussed his widely varied roles over the years and even combined a few of their influences in the awesome guitar solo.

Hispanically Yours

Celebrating the Latino Influence

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