The 52-year-old Cuban-American stage, screen and voice actor and singer will star in FX’s hour-long pilot The Answers, the network’s adaptation of Catherine Lacey’s novel.
In addition to Esparza, the series regular cast will include Lucy Hale, Krys Marshall, Melanie Field, Pallavi Sharda and Kine Kunutu in the project from Sorry for Your Loss creator Kit Steinkellner, Dopesickcreator Danny Strong, Requiem for a Dream director Darren Aronofsky and 20th Television.
They join previously announced male lead David Corenswet.
The story, which has drawn comparisons to The Handmaid’s Tale, is set in the near future, where a heartbroken young woman, Mary (Hale), joins an enigmatic experiment that promises to hack love, but after moving into an idyllic, secluded location with her fellow female participants, she and the other women start questioning what’s really happening in the experiment, and why they’ve all been tasked with dating the same mysterious man, Christopher Skye (Corenswet).
Esparza plays Dr. Crowe; Marshall portrays Ellis; Field is Dani; Sharda plays Ash and Kunutu is Nic.
Steinkellner wrote the pilot and executive-produces. Strong and Aronofsky executive produce with Mandy Safavi with Danny Strong Productions and Ari Handel and Elizabeth Gesas with Aronofsky’s Protozoa Pictures.
Gillian Robespierre will direct and executive produce the pilot. 20th Television, a part of Disney Television Studios, is the studio.
The 57-year-old Latino film and television director has been tapped to direct and executive produce ABC’s drama pilot Promised Land..
Written by Matt Lopez, Promised Land is an epic, generation-spanning drama about two Latinx families vying for wealth and power in California’s Sonoma Valley.
The cast includes John Ortiz as Joe Sandoval, patriarch of the Sandoval family, Cecilia Suárez as Lettie Sandoval, matriarch of the Sandoval family, Augusto Aguilera as Mateo Sandoval, the hardworking, highly capable general manager of the Heritage Vineyard and stepson to patriarch Joe Sandoval, Mariel Molino as Camila Sandoval, the youngest daughter of the Sandoval family, Christina Ochoa as Veronica Sandoval, the eldest daughter of the Sandovals, as well as Andres Velez as Carlos Rincón, a young immigrant who comes to the Heritage Vineyard in search of a better life.
Lopez executive produces with Cuesta and Adam Kolbrenner of Lit Entertainment Group. ABC Signature is the studio.
Cuesta also is one of the directors, working with Barry Levinson, onDopesick,Hulu’s upcoming eight-episode limited series written by Danny Strong, based on Beth Macy’s bestselling book, from The Handmaid’s Taleexecutive producer Warren Littlefield and Touchstone Television.
He most recently served as executive producer and director, including on the pilot episode, of Homeland, which recently wrapped its eighth and final season on Showtime.
In addition to Homeland, Cuesta directed the pilots for Dexter, Blue Bloodsand City on a Hill. His episodic directing credits include Elementary, True BloodandBillions, among others.
The Latino actor has been cast as a recurring actor on the third season of the CW’s Charmed. The reboot of the fantasy drama, which originally ran from 1998-2006, is currently in production on Season 3 in Vancouver.
Diaz will play Antonio, described as “an overly confident but charming classmate of Maggie’s (Sarah Jeffery) who quickly becomes her nemesis.” The series also stars Melonie Diaz and Madeleine Mantock.
This continues Diaz’s relationship with the CW after he was recently seen on the seventh and final season of The 100as a recurring guest star.
Additionally, he can be seen recurring on the current season of The Good Witch. His other credits include Kim’s Convenience, The Crossword MysteriesandThe Handmaid’s Tale.
The 52-year-old Puerto Rican actor has joined the cast of Jenna Ortega, Maddie Ziegler and Niles Fitch’s high school drama The Fallout, which wraps its four-week LA shoot this week.
Actress Megan Park has written and is directing the feature about high school student Vada (Ortega) who navigates the emotional fallout she experiences in the wake of a school tragedy. Relationships with her family, friends and view on the world are forever altered.
David Brown will produce for U.S. outfit Clear Horizon alongside Rebecca Miller and Cara Shine.
Pedro Almodóvar is offering his support to the LGBT+ community in Poland.
A wide group of global entertainment figures, including the 70-year-old Oscar-winning Spanish filmmaker, have signed a letter supporting the Polish LGBT+ community in the face of growing controversy in the country.
On Tuesday, the government stepped in to support the Polish town of Tuchow, which recently lost financial support from the European Union after it set up a ‘LGBT-free’ zone. The authorities said they were “supporting a municipality that has a pro-family agenda”; the decision has provoked angry responses around the world. On August 8, authorities detained 48 people at a reportedly peaceful pro-LGBT+ protest.
The responses now include an open letter signed by a cross-section of notable figures from film, literature and further afield, including the Almodóvar and Luca Guadagnino, the Nobel Prize-winning author Olga Tokarczuk, The Handmaid’s Talewriter Margaret Atwood, and Polish filmmakers Agnieszka Hollandand Jan Komasa.
The letter, published on the website wyborcza.pl, states that homophobia in Poland is growing because of the incumbent socially conservative government, which it claims is using LGBT+ groups as a “scapegoat”. The letter is addressed to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and calls on the organization to step in and “defend core European values” of “equality, non-discrimination, respect for minorities” which it says are being “blatantly violated in Poland”.
Here’s the full letter:
Dear Dr. von der Leyen:
We, the undersigned, express our outrage at repressions directed against the LGBT+ community in Poland. We speak out in solidarity with activists and their allies, who are being detained, brutalized, and intimidated. We voice our grave concern about the future of democracy in Poland, a country with an admirable history of resistance to totalitarianism and struggle for freedom.
On Friday, 7 August 2020, 48 persons were arrested in Warsaw – in some cases quite brutally – and detained on the grounds that they had participated in a violent illegal gathering. In fact, they were engaged in a peaceful protest in solidarity with an LGBT+ activist named Margot, who had been arrested for damaging a homophobic campaigner’s van. Her group had also placed rainbow flags over statues, including a statue of Christ. These actions were neither “hooliganism” nor “provocations,” as Poland’s government-run media insist, but rather desperate acts of resistance against degrading homophobic hate speech. The van is one of many similar vehicles parading outrageous claims around the cities of Poland: equating homosexuality with pedophilia, and asserting that gays are the source of diseases and a threat to children. Efforts to stop this well-funded hate campaign by legal means had led to nothing.
The broader context is the persistent use of anti-LGBT+ rhetoric by Polish politicians and media, attacks against “LGBT ideology” in the recent presidential campaign, preceded by the emergence in many municipalities and districts of “zones free of LGBT ideology,” allegedly defending the safety of families and children, and last year’s violent attacks against Equality March in Białystok. Homophobic aggression in Poland is growing because it is condoned by the ruling party, which has chosen sexual minorities as a scapegoat with no regard for the safety and well-being of citizens. Margot is, in fact, a political prisoner, held captive for her refusal to accept indignity.
We call on the Polish government to stop targeting sexual minorities, to stop supporting organizations that spread homophobia and to hold accountable those who are responsible for unlawful and violent arrests of August 7, 2020.
We call on the European Commission to take immediate steps to defend core European values – equality, non-discrimination, respect for minorities – which are being blatantly violated in Poland. LGBT+ rights are human rights and must be defended as such.
Naja Marie Aidt, writer, Danish language Pedro Almodóvar, film director, Spain Jakuta Alikavazovic, writer, France Margaret Atwood, writer, Canada Paul Auster, writer, USA John Banville, writer, Ireland Sebastian Barry, writer, Ireland Judith Butler, philosopher, USA Sophie Calle, writer and artist, France John Maxwell Coetzee, writer, South Africa Isabel Coixet, director, Spain Stephen Daldry, director, UK Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, writer, France Lucas Dhont, director, Belgium Marion Döring, director of European Film Academy Cynthia Enloe, political scientist, USA Anne Enright, writer, Ireland Ildiko Enyedi, director, Hungary Richard Flanagan, writer, Australia Barbara Frey, theatre and opera director, Switzerland/Austria Timothy Garton Ash, historian, UK Agnieszka Graff, americanist, Poland Luca Guadagnino, director, Italy Miron Hackenbeck, dramaturg, Germany Ed Harris, actor, director USA Aleksander Hemon, writer, Bosnia/USA Agnieszka Holland, director, Poland Siri Hustvedt, writer, USA Isabelle Huppert, actress, France Aki Kaurismäki, director, Finland Padraic Kenney, historian, USA Jan Komasa, director, Poland Ivan Krastev, political scientist, Bulgaria Jan Kubik, political scientist, UK Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, choreographer, Belgium Yorgos Lanthimos, director, Greece Andrzej Leder, philosopher, Poland Jacek Leociak, historian, Poland Jonathan Littell, writer, France Mike Leigh, director, UK Deborah Levi, writer, UK Edouard Louis, writer, France Sergei Loznitsa, director, Germany/Ukraine Valeria Luiselli, writer, USA Dorota Masłowska, writer, Poland Hisham Matar, writer, USA Ulrich Matthes, actor, Germany Ian McEwan, writer, UK Lina Meruane, writer, Chile Teona Mitevska, director, North Macedonia Chantal Mouffe, philosopher, Belgium James Norton, actor, UK Claus Offe, sociologist, Germany Paweł Pawlikowski, director, Poland Richard Powers, writer, USA Axel Ranisch, filmmaker and opera director, Germany Keith Ridgway, writer, Ireland Philippe Sands, lawyer and writer, UK Volker Schlöndorff, director, Germany Marci Shore, historian, USA Stellan Skarsgaard, actor, Sweden Leila Slimani, writer, France Timothy Snyder, historian, USA Johanna ter Steege, actress, the Netherlands Dariusz Stola, historian, Poland Małgorzata Szczęśniak, stage designer, Poland Małgorzata Szumowska, director, Poland Colm Toibin, writer, Ireland Olga Tokarczuk, writer, Poland Alia Trabucco Zerán, writer, Chile Fien Troch, director, Belgium Jan Vandenhouwe, artistic director and opera dramaturg, Belgium Krzysztof Warlikowski, theater director, Poland/France Beau Willimon, playwright, screenwriter, USA Adam Zagajewski, poet, Poland Slavoj Žižek, philosopher, Slovenia
In addition to Esparza, the series regular cast will include Lucy Hale, Krys Marshall, Melanie Field, Pallavi Sharda and Kine Kunutu in the project from Sorry for Your Loss creator Kit Steinkellner, Dopesick creator Danny Strong, Requiem for a Dream director Darren Aronofsky and 20th Television.
