James Franco To Play Fidel Castro In ‘Alina Of Cuba’; Mia Maestro Additionally Set – Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar nominee and 2x Golden Globe winner James Franco will play Cuban chief Fidel Castro in Miguel Bardem’s Aline of Cuba with Imagen Award winner Mía Maestro set to play Natalia “Naty” Revuelta, the Cuban-born socialite he has a passionate love affair with.

They be part of beforehand introduced actress Ana Villafañe who’s portraying Alina Fernandez aka Castro’s Daughter. The screenplay from Oscar-nominated scribe Jose Rivera (The Motorbike Diaries) and Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz, follows the true-life story of Cuban exile turned social advocate, Fernandez, whose delivery was the results of the tryst between Revuelta and Castro. Revuelta sacrificed her and her doctor husband’s private belongings and funds to assist fund the beginning of the communist revolution. Fernandez realized that she was Fidel Castro’s daughter on the age of 10 when after years of secret visits to her house, her mom lastly revealed that “El Comandante” was her organic father.  Alina grew to develop into certainly one of Castro’s most outspoken critics, arrested on multiple event for making an attempt to depart, and was categorised as a dissident forbidden to journey outdoors of Cuba. In the end, she defected to Spain in 1993, an occasion that drew headlines from each main information community all over the world, earlier than she made Miami her everlasting house.

Rounding out the supporting forged are Alanna de la Rosa, Maria Cecilia Botero (Encanto), Harding Junior, and Cuban-born actors Sian Chiong and Rafael Ernesto Hernandez.

The film is being shot completely on location in and round Cartagena and Bogota, with Colombia’s colonial Spanish structure and design taking part in for Castro-era Havana, Cuba.  Cameras roll on Aug. 15.

John Martinez O’Felan, the venture’s lead artistic producer of Austin-based Mankind Leisure, says, “Because the inception of the movie, our focus has been to provide an inventive piece of contemporary Hispanic historical past, with the imaginative and prescient for the venture as being actually inclusive by uniting actors and creatives from each intergenerational and up to date Latin roots from the U.S, Latin America, and the world. That stated, casting Ana and Mia had been no-brainers as a result of, apart from the trajectory of their previous work, one represents trendy Cuban-America and the opposite Argentina. After watching Ana’s reel and auditioning her, it turned evident she was completely suited and had a terrific voice to hold the fabric, and Mia’s work previously with Jose spoke for itself and screamed author/actress reunion.”

O’Felan provides, “Discovering and convincing James Franco to play Castro, was a enjoyable and difficult course of and has been the collaborative work of the universe, as a result of our director’s unique order was to seek out an actor who holds a detailed bodily resemblance to the true Castro to construct from, together with discovering somebody Alina Fernandez would strongly endorse. To get there on such a troublesome look to forged, we used Fidel Castro’s historical Galician heraldry as our focal compass, after which combed by your entire ranks of actors with Latin roots in Hollywood to seek out somebody who has an identical facial construction. In executing a detailed search into our hopefuls by the attention of Spanish and Portuguese family tree which the Galicians held, we discovered that James, by far, had the closest facial likeness of our Trade’s main actors, which means that the main focus can be to construct out his character accent and we’d have a surprising on-screen match to intrigue audiences and produce the story to life with true visible integrity. Altogether, working with such a supportive and thrilling forged has been a real blessing to our staff and venture.”

As a part of the movie’s media package deal, O’Felan additionally launched the absolutely financed companion documentary Revolution’s Daughter, which is being filmed on-location alongside Alina of Cuba with Emmy and Peabody Award-winning director Thaddeus D. Matula on the helm. Along with incorporating a behind-the-scenes take a look at Alina of Cuba, Revolution’s Daughter will discover the historic and trendy take a look at Cuban historical past and Alina Fernandez. The documentary will probably be bought as a part of the whole characteristic movie package deal.

Franco acquired a Greatest Actor Oscar nomination for 127 Hours in 2011. His portrayal of absurdist filmmaker and cult indie star Tommy Wiseau in The Catastrophe Artist earned him a Golden Globe win for Greatest Actor – Comedy or Musical, Greatest Actor in a Comedy on the Critics Selection Awards, and a SAG Nomination for Greatest Actor. His characteristic credit embrace the Sam Raimi directed Spider-Man trilogy, Spring Breakers, Milk, Eat Pray Love, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Pineapple Specific, and This Is the Finish amongst a number of different titles. He was the EP and star of the HBO collection The Deuce, and he counts quite a few characteristic directing credit together with The Catastrophe Artist, The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, The Lengthy Residence amongst others. Franco additionally gained a Golden Globe in 2002 for his portrayal of James Dean within the TV film of the identical identify within the Greatest Actor Miniseries/Film class. The actor, who’s of Latin-Portuguese heritage, acquired the help to play Castro by the Cuban chief’s personal daughter, who’s serving the manufacturing on the set as a artistic and biographical marketing consultant.  Franco is represented by Nameless Content material and UTA.

Maestro not too long ago wrapped the Apple+ anthology collection Extrapolations, starring reverse Edward Norton, in addition to the lead in Domenico De Feudis’ Italian characteristic Il Legame (aka The Binding) for Netflix, produced by Academy Award winner Paolo Sorrentino. Maestro not too long ago starred within the acclaimed Sundance Movie Pageant premiere The Cow That Sang Into The Future. She is thought for her roles in Carlos Saura’s Oscar-nominated characteristic Tango, Walter Salles’ The Motorbike Diaries, Julie Taymor’s Frida, in addition to her current function in FX’s hit collection Mayans M.C. She is repped by Paradigm and Luber Roklin Leisure.

Deadline previously reported that Villafañe as Fernandez. She is finest identified for her breakout function within the Broadway musical On Your Toes, wherein she portrayed Cuban pop icon, Gloria Estefan. She later starred as Nina Rosario within the Kennedy Middle’s 2018 manufacturing of Within the Heights. 

The producers of Alina of Cuba are Austin-based Mankind Leisure’s O’Felan and Joe Lamy, together with Academy Award-nominee Celine Rattray (The Youngsters Are Alright) and BAFTA-nominated Trudie Styler (Nonetheless Alice, Lock, Inventory, and Two Smoking Barrels and Moon.) for Maven Display Media. Further producers embrace husband and spouse staff Allen Gilmer and Rikki Speeding, founders of Austin-based Redbud Studios. Emmy-winner Javier Gonzalez is government producing with Bogota-based manufacturing companies firm Jaguar Chew and Colombian EPs Juan Pablo Solano and Simon Beltran. EPs additionally embrace Luis Mandoki and Thaddeus D. Matula.