Hugo Fernandez’s personal mission is to innovate the zombie genre and cast Latino leads
Hugo Fernandez; filmmaker/screenwriter mentored by UCLA professor Philip Frank Messina, critically acclaimed by Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Sharon Badal and Oscar winning writer Bruce Joel Rubin. His directorial debut Erza Fear of a Faceless God released in 2009 by Gravitas Ventures and MTV Networks’ MTV.com starring Annet Mahendru of the FX hit show “The Americans”. His sophomore effort A Good Dad premiered in New York City at Tribeca’s 8th annual Big Apple Film Festival in 2011. Director Robert Rodriguez elected Hugo honorary recipient of AMD’s “Most Visionary Young Director Award” for the zombie genre series concept Inzombnia. Hugo is spearheading the world’s first Latino inclusion horror programming network, Horror X with production company Cinemerica.”
In 2008 I was shopping a horror script in L.A. with two Latino leads and while I was able to knock on doors, there seemed to be a real reticence expressed by those I spoke with at the idea of having two Latino characters as the leads of a film. Despite much knocking, all that I could get was one meeting with a Latina actress named Majandra Delfino who was a lead in a show called Roswell that was on the air at the time. I flew out to meet her only to find that she had cancelled the meeting because she had an impromptu meeting in Las Vegas that she needed to attend. Such is the nature of the business, I know, but nonetheless I have to say that the trip was a huge disappointment.
More so, I was rattled that what was such a minor alteration to the horror genre, namely having two Latinos in the lead, caused so much discomfort in the industry. So I came back to New York with my tail between my legs and a resolution to continue my journey and somehow pave a road in filmmaking on my own here in New York. Fast forward a few years, and a couple of full features in the can later, the work I was doing and that of my Latino peers in the industry helped me to further crystallize the realization that while America’s viewership was getting diversified, Hollywood Filmmaking and TV programming definitely weren’t.
So I thought, “I want to do a project I want to do,” realizing that sometimes you have projects that are pitch friendly and sometimes you have ones that you know are your personal expression of art but which may completely suck for pitches. I had the latter and I knew it. But I didn’t care. In this case, my personal mission was to innovate the zombie genre with something scarier than the usual fare. And of course, to give it Latino leads. Now, everyone knows zombies are the worst pitch in Hollywood. How many story pitches in the last ten years do you think start with, “I got an idea for a zombie movie…”? Odds are, most of them probably generic, plain horrible, or the twenty millionth pitch a producer or programmer has heard until another one comes along to be the twenty one millionth.
“I hadn’t realized the extent to which my heritage was important”
So I filmed a trailer and a few episodes with Latino character leads for a grindhouse concept called Inzombnia, a title that was bilingually understood, an aspect I really wanted. I’ve never been happier to have taken a gamble on following that vision because on the strength of that video I was awarded AMD’s most Visionary Young Director Award from director Robert Rodriguez. And what supposedly made it significant was that I was the only Latino selected among five awarded directors. To be honest I didn’t care about that part I was just honored that out of so many young filmmakers from U.S., Canada, Great Britain, France, and Germany I was even lucky enough to be chosen among the five.
I hadn’t realized the extent to which my heritage was important until I hooked up with producer Maria Nieto, now my partner at Cinemerica. She made me realize that Hollywood and the new English speaking Latino generations are starving for new voices from the filmmaking Latino community. And she was right! Following the award, NuvoTV came calling and while they wanted unscripted at the time, they’re still a connection I’m happy to have as I develop new projects that might be a better fit for their future programming.
Maria thought I should try L.A. again because there had been a real change in the atmosphere that is open to Latino inclusion. And she was right again. Immediately our biggest ally for our projects was Kelly Edwards at HBO, who has a distinguished career as a professional for diverse programming since her days at NBC Universal. Thanks to her blessing and others like her with a real interest in bringing diversity to the screen, our projects, especially Joaquin, have been making the rounds through Hollywood hands that I could never have expected just a mere five years ago!
Joaquin has been The definitive buzz magnet which I’m really excited about. It’s a biography that takes on the Zorro myth, not as the heartwarming Hollywood tale, but rather, as the dark true story of the violent gunslinger Joaquin Murrietta which the classic Zorro myth is based on. But the homogenized myth avoids a lot of the gritty details and changes the black bandana faced gunslinger into a genteel swordsman in a cape. I want to reverse that and tell the epic tragic story that I think is appropriate for a Latino director to tell. An astounding historical account I believe Latinos and non-Latinos alike should get to hear.
So what is the pivotal difference between my 2008 trip to L.A. and my recent trip this past March? In 2008, I got one cancelled appointment… now, what started at HBO, became a meet and greet at CBS, an invitation with TBS programming representatives at the Hollywood Creative Forum, an unexpected meet with NBC diversity manager Grace Borrero Moss, BET, and various Hollywood managers. And this is the weirdest part. All this with no agent on my behalf, just producer Maria and I! With no agent the protocol has been to sign waivers. Now if that isn’t hunger for new Latino voices I don’t know what is!
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