James Franco (Pineapple espresso, 127 hours, The disaster artist) signed to play Cuban leader Fidel Castro Alina of Cuba in front of the winner of the Image Award My Master, who will play Natalia “Naty” Revuelta, the Cuban-born socialite with whom she has a passionate love affair. The film is directed by Miguel Bardemfrom a screenplay by an Oscar-nominated screenwriter José Rivera (The motorcycle diaries) and Pulitzer Prize winner Nile Cruz.
They join the previously announced actress Ana Villafañe, who plays Alina Fernandez, aka Castro’s daughter. The story follows the true story of the Cuban exile turned social supporter, Fernandez, whose birth was the result of the encounter between Revuelta and Castro. Revuelta sacrificed her personal belongings and her doctor husband’s finances to help finance the start of the communist revolution. Fernandez learned she was Fidel Castro’s daughter at the age of 10 when, after years of secret visits to her home, her mother finally revealed that “El Comandante” was her biological father. Alina has grown to become one of Castro’s most outspoken critics, arrested on more than one occasion for attempting to leave, and has been classified as a dissident prohibited from traveling outside Cuba. Eventually, she defected to Spain in 1993. , an event that drew headlines from all the major news networks around the world, before making Miami its permanent home.
Rounding out the supporting cast are Alanna de la Rosa, Maria Cecilia Botero (Encanto), Harding Juniorand actors of Cuban origin Sian Chiong And Rafael Ernesto Hernandez.
The film was shot entirely on location in and around Cartagena and Bogota, with Spanish colonial architecture and Colombian design sounding for Castro-era Havana, Cuba.
John Leguizamo is not happy with the casting and slammed him, saying, “How is this still happening? How does Hollywood exclude us but also steal our narratives? No more Hollywood and streamer appropriation! Boycott! This is fine! Plus a really hard story to tell without magnification, which would be wrong! I don’t have a [problem] with Franco but he’s not Latin! “
Shooting for the film will begin on August 15th.
via: Deadline
by Jessica Fisher
Source: Geek Tyrant
