Anthony Ramos In Talks to Star in the Film Adaptation of the Hit Broadway Musical “In The Heights”

Posted on October 12, 2018 by Tom Castaneda

Anthony Ramos may be reaching new Heights…

The 26-year-old Puerto Rican actor, part of the original cast of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning musical Hamilton, is in negotiations to star in In the Heights, Warner Bros.’ adaptation of Miranda’s other Tony-winning musical.

If the talks pan out, Ramos would play Usnavi, the bodega owner at the center of the action in the Washington Heights-set musical, according to Deadline.

Miranda originated the role in the musical and earned a Tony Award nomination for his performance.

The musical won four Tonys in 2008 including for Best Musical, for Quiara Alegría Hudes’ book, and for Miranda’s lyrics. In the original storyline, Usnavi strikes it rich and plans to leave, until the pull of the neighborhood and the people in it give him pause.

The synopsis of the In The Heights film: Residents of the largely Latino Upper Manhattan neighborhood Washington Heights – a bodega owner, a college student, a taxi driver, a beauty salon worker, and an old woman – aspire for better lives as gentrification begins to take hold, and a sweltering summer power blackout brings their personal life crises to a head.

This is the first cast action since it was announced in May that Warner Bros. had wrapped a $50 million deal to acquire film rights to the musical. The property was the subject of a hot auction after it was extracted from the The Weinstein Company ahead of its bankruptcy.

Jon M. Chu is directing the film, adapted by Hudes.

Ramos, who played Philip Hamilton and John Laurens in Hamilton, appeared in Netflix’s She’s Gotta Have It.

He currently appears in A Star is Born, as well as toplined the Sundance Film Festival film Monsters and Men.

He’ll next appear in Legendary‘s filmGodzilla: King of Monsters.

The Weinstein Company Partners with Miranda to Develop “In the Heights” for Film

Posted on May 31, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway hit is getting the Weinstein treatment…

The Weinstein Company is developing a film adaptation of the 36-year-old Puerto Rican actor, composer, rapper and writer’s musical In the Heights, which won the 2008 Tony Award for best musical.

Miranda is producing the project, which had been set at Universal Pictures with Kenny Ortega attached to direct and Miranda starring before the studio put it into turnaround in 2011.

Miranda wrote the music and lyrics for the musical and starred in the show’s lead role, earning him a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

In the Heights is set in Washington Heights in New York City and focuses on a bodega owner who’s closing his store and retiring to the Dominican Republic after inheriting his grandmother’s fortune.

“As a kid from Queens, I’ve always loved bringing New York stories to film,” said TWC’s Harvey Weinstein. “‘In the Heights and Lin Manuel brought Washington Heights to Broadway back in 2008 and in the process turned the theater world on its head. The movie musicals of the 1950s were incredible, but In The Heights will revolutionize what movie audiences expect from the genre.”

Miranda is performing on Broadway in the lead role of Alexander Hamilton in the hit musical Hamilton, for which he wrote the book, music and lyrics.

Hamilton was nominated for a record 16 Tony Awards, with the winners to be announced on June 12.

Ramirez’s “Hands of Stone” Screening at This Year’s Cannes Film Festival

Posted on May 3, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Edgar Ramirez will be throwing punches at this year’s Cannes Film Festival…

The 39-year-old Venezuelan actor’s latest film, Hands of Stone, will have a special screening at the film festival on Monday, May 16 in homage to fellow star Robert De Niro who will be in attendance.

“I’m excited to be coming back to Cannes especially with this movie, Hands Of Stone, that I’m so proud of,” said De Niro. “This movie is uplifting, triumphant and a good time for audiences, so I’m looking forward to seeing my friends from across the world of cinema in joining us for this fun event.”

The rags-to-riches boxing drama by Venezuelan director Jonathan Jakubowicz tells the story of iconinc Panamanian brawler Roberto Duràn (Ramirez) and manager and trainer Ray Arcel (De Niro).

Duran made his professional debut in 1968 as a 16-year‐old and retired in 2002 at the age of 50. He defeated nemesis Sugar Ray Leonard in June 1980, capturing the WBC welterweight title. However, in the rematch that November, Duran shocked the world. He was being outclassed and pummeled by Leonard when he said “No mas,” turned his back on his opponent and quit in the ring. During the course of his career he saw 103 victories in 119 fights.

The film’s title comes from Duran’s nickname, Los Manos a Piedra. Usher plays Leonard. Ellen Barkin, Ruben Blades and Ana de Armas also star.

The Weinstein Company acquired Hands of Stone at Cannes last year after an all-nighter and will release the film domestically on August 26.

Jaenada to Star Opposite Blake Lively in “The Shallows”

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Oscar Jaenada is heading to the shallows…

The 40-year-old Spanish actor has joined the cast of Jaume Collet-Serra’s The Shallows opposite Blake Lively.

Jaenada, a Goya Award winner, is crossing over into the mainstream after bringing beloved Mexican comedic icon Cantinflas to the screen in the 2014 movie of the same name.

He has a small, but book-ended role in The Shallows.

Written by Anthony Jaswinski, the story centers on a young woman (Lively) who is grieving the loss her mother and surfing in an isolated area when she gets stranded on a buoy. Things take a turn for the worse when a gigantic great white shark comes between her and the shore.

The film was known as In The Deep when Sony Pictures won a bidding war for the spec script in September 2014, and brought Collet-Serra aboard in June.

Jaenada, who appears in The Weinstein Company’s 2016 offering Hands Of Stone opposite Robert De Niro, will play Carlos in the film, described as a workman who drives Lively’s character to the beach and then shows up again at the end of the film to check on her.

The film is casting now and has three other small supporting roles that are earmarked for Hispanic actors.

Jaenada won the coveted Goya (Spain’s equivalent of the Academy Award) for his portrayal of Camaron de la Isla, the legendary Spanish flamenco dancer, in 2005’s Camaron: When Flamenco Became Legend.

Cantinflas was Mexico’s 2015 foreign-language Oscar submission.

In addition, the actor had a starring role in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and a critically praised appearance in Steven Soderbergh’s Che.

The Weinstein Company to Release Bichir’s “The Hateful Eight” on Christmas Day

Posted on June 13, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Demian Bichir is preparing for a Hateful Christmas…

The Weinstein Company has announced plans to give Quentin Tarantino’s new movie The Hateful Eight, starring the 51-year-old Mexican actor, an exclusive two-week roadshow in 70mm nationwide beginning Christmas Day.

The plan is to follow that with a digital theatrical release on January 8. The Western shoot-em-up is Tarantino’s follow-up to 2012’s Django Unchained, for which he won the Original Screenplay Oscar. That also was released on December 25.

It will mark the widest 70mm release that the industry has seen in more than 20 years, TWC said. Tarantino has been one of the biggest proponents of the format and was part of the filmmaker-led fight to keep the film stock division open at Kodak, which had decided to scrap the unit altogether until it was resurrected in February.

Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Bruce Dern also star in the pic.

Bichir portrays Bob, “The Mexican,” in the film.

The Weinstein Company Acquires U.S. Distribution Rights to Ramirez’s “Hands of Stone”

Posted on May 15, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Edgar Ramirez’s latest film will get the Weinstein treatment…

The Weinstein Company has closed a deal for the U.S. distribution rights to Hands of Stone, the Jonathan Jakubowicz-directed drama that stars the 38-year-old Venezuelan actor as iconic fighter Robert Duran.

Robert De Niro portrays Duran’s mentor and trainer Ray Arcel, and Usher appears as his ring nemesis Sugar Ray Leonard. Ellen Barkin, Ruben Blades and Ana de Armas also star.

The deal includes a theatrical commitment of around 2000 screens that will make this a precedent-setting release for a Latino film, with a strong P&A commitment and backend deals.

The deal makes sense, as The Weinstein Company bought the foreign rights for Hands of Stone a few months ago and now the company will release it globally.

The film tells the rags-to-riches story of Duran, who is best remembered for his two ring matches with Leonard. The first, in 1980, featured two proud all-time greats fighting toe to toe, with Duran emerging victorious to win the WBC welterweight title. And then came the rematch that November, where Duran shocked the world. He was being outclassed and pummeled by Leonard when he said “no mas,” and turned his back on Leonard and quit in the ring.

Jakubowicz wrote the script, and the core of the story is the relationship between Duran and Arcel and how each man changed the other in boxing’s Golden Era, when Duran and Leonard battled among a group of brawlers that included Thomas Hearns, Marvin Hagler, Hector Camacho and Vinny Pazienza.

The title Hands Of Stone came from Duran’s nickname, because the Panamanian hit so hard, with those heavy fists powering him to 103 victories in 119 fights. The “no mas” incident was a terrible ending to a rivalry that was everything depicted by De Niro and Martin Scorsese in Raging Bull, when Jake LaMotta had those classic brawls with Sugar Ray Robinson.

The film will most likely open sometime next winter.

Bichir to Star in in Quentin Tarantino’s Post-Civil War Western “The Hateful Eight”

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Demián Bichir is hateful…

The 51-year-old Mexican American actor has been cast in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, the epic post-Civil War Western from The Weinstein Company.

The plot: A stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth and his fugitive Daisy Domergue, race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren, a former Union soldier-turned-infamous bounty hunter, and Chris Mannix, a Southern renegade who claims to be the town’s new sheriff.

Losing their lead on the blizzard, Ruth, Domergue, Warren and Mannix seek refuge at Minnie’s Haberdashery, a stagecoach stopover on a mountain pass. When they arrive at Minnie’s, they are greeted not by the proprietor but by four unfamiliar faces: Bob (portrayed by Bichir), who’s taking care of Minnie’s while she’s visiting her mother, is holed up with Oswaldo Mobray, the hangman of Red Rock, cow-puncher Joe Gage, and Confederate Gen. Sanford Smithers. As the storm overtakes the mountainside stopover, the eight travelers come to learn they may not make it to Red Rock after all.

Bichir, making his first appearance in a Tarantino film, joins a cast that includes Channing Tatum, Samuel L Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Bruce Dern.

The Hateful Eight begins shooting early next year in Telluride, with The Weinstein Company eyeing a 2015 release.

Brühl Starring in John Wells’ Culinary Film Project at The Weinstein Company

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Something’s cookin’ for Daniel Brühl in Hollywood…

The 36-year-old half-Spanish actor, who earned a SAG Award nomination for his performance in Ron Howard’s Rush, will star in the untitled John Wells-directed culinary project at The Weinstein Company starring Bradley Cooper and Matthew Rhys.

The film centers on Adam Jones, portrayed by Cooper, a two Michelin Star chef in Paris whose ability to create explosions of taste is undermined by his badboy rants and diva behavior that destroy his career. Rhys portrays Reece, who stands in the way of his comeback.

No word yet on Brühl’s character in the film.

The film is shooting in London through September 26.

Harvey Weinstein is trying to come up with the right title after Jon Favreau released Chef, which was the film’s original title.

The film also stars Sienna Miller, Uma Thurman, Riccardo Scarmacio, Emma Thompson, Lily James, Omar Sy, Jamie Dornan, Sam Keeley, Sarah Greene and Alicia Vikander.

Ortiz to Star Opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in the Boxing Film “Southpaw”

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Art will imitate life for Victor Ortiz as he prepares for his next acting role…

The Weinstein Company and director Antoine Fuqua have added the 27-year-old Mexican-American former-WBC-Welterweight-Champion-turned actor to the cast of their boxing pic Southpaw.

Featuring Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role, as well as Rachel McAdams and Forest Whitaker, the film centers on an up-and-coming fighter who loses everything in a moment of rage and has to start from the bottom to get his life back.

Ortiz will portray Ramone, a flyweight kid from the streets with real sparring potential. The character parallels Ortiz’s own rags-to-riches story of rising from childhood as a foster kid, to brawling his way to the championship belt in 2011.

Sons Of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter wrote the script for Southpaw, which also stars Miguel Gomez.

It’s the second significant role for Ortiz, who makes his feature film debut later this summer as one of the Young Expendables in Expendables 3. He was personally selected for the role by Sylvester Stallone.

Shooting on Southpaw just began in Pittsburgh.

Vega Stuns as Maria Callas in the New Trailer for Nicole Kidman’s “Grace of Monaco”

Posted on March 9, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Nicole Kidman may star as Grace Kelly in Grace of Monaco, but Paz Vega shines bright as late opera legend Maria Callas.

In the just-released extended trailer for the Olivier Dahan-directed film, the 38-year-old Spanish actress briefly (and stunningly) appears as the legendary soprano singer, considered one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century.

Set in 1962, six years after her celebrated Wedding of the Century, “Grace of Monaco” is an intimate snapshot of a year in the life of the twentieth century’s most iconic Princess – Grace Kelly – as she strived to reconcile her past and her present, a yearning for a return to the big screen with her newfound role as a mother of two, monarch of a European principality and wife to Prince Ranier III.

Grace of Monaco, set in 1962, is an intimate snapshot of a year in the life of the twentieth century’s most iconic princess as she strived to reconcile her past and her present, a yearning for a return to the big screen with her newfound role as a mother of two, monarch of a European principality and wife to Prince Ranier III (portrayed by Tim Roth).

The trailer shows some of the struggles the former Hollywood star faced over her role as Princess Grace.

Along with Kidman, Vega and Roth, the film also stars Frank Langella, Derek Jacobi, Parker Posey and Milo Ventimiglia.

The movie will have its world premiere as the opening-night film at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14. It also gets released in France on that same day.

Warner Bros. releases in the United Kingdom on June 6. The Weinstein Company will release the film in the U.S.

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