By Luis Reyes
It’s beginning to look a lot Latino this year’s end. Here is a sampling of films where you can see some of the biggest [Latino] stars in Hollywood.
Jennifer Lopez Returns to Comedy
Jennifer Lopez stars in the feature Second Act, a new romantic comedy to be released on Dec 21. Set in New York City, Lopez plays Maya, a woman who finds herself in a mid-career crisis at her dead end big box store job. With a little help from her friends including Leah Remini and Vanessa Hudgens characters helping her climb up the corporate ladder.
The film is directed by Peter Segel (Get Smart, Anger Management) who also executive produces along with Lopez and her long time manager and is producer Benny Medina. It was written by Justin Zackham and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas who are also on as producers. Casting was done by Roger Mussenden (Get Smart, Selena)
Latino Spiderman Miles Morales
Spiderman: Into the Spider Verse is already a box-office winner and has been voted by critics one of the best-animated films of the year. It stars a fictional Latino Spiderman in the form of Brooklyn born teenager Miles Morales who is half African-American and Puerto Rican voiced by Shameik Moore.
Rio is Miles’ Puerto Rican mother voiced by Luna Lauren Velez (Dexter). It is a forward thinking that the late Stan Lee and the Marvel Comic Universe included a Latino Superhero in Spiderman/Miles Morales in their film lineup…we will take it.
Eiza Gonzalez Is Star Material
Eiza Gonzales, born in Sonora Mexico co-stars with Steve Carell in Welcome to Marwen directed by Oscar winner Bob Zemeckis due out on Christmas day. In the fantasy drama, Eiza plays Caralala, a friend and co-worker to Steve Carell’s Mark.
After a vicious attack outside a bar where he works part-time, Mark is left with a cerebral injury. Trying to recover pieces of his memories and his life causes Mark to create a wondrous world of dolls and toys in his backyard unknowingly based on the people from his past reimagined. Eiza has a dual role as a doll that comes to life.
The young actress is on a roll as she just landed the female lead in Hobbs and Shaw the spinoff sequel to The Fast and The Furious, opposite Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham. Though she reached stardom in Telenovelas in Mexico Gonzales garnered attention with her role in the hit film Baby Driver. The young actress was featured in the series From Dusk Till Dawn and will be seen in Robert Rodriguez’s January 2019 Sci-Fi film release Alita: Battle Angel. Eiza was a presenter at last year’s Academy Awards along with Eugenio Derbez.
Lin-Manuel Mirada the “Schpeaking” Chimney Sweep
Lin-Manuel Miranda who recently received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame stars as Jack, an optimistic English street lamplighter who helps bring light and life to the streets of London in Disney’s musical film Mary Poppins Returns opposite Emily Blunt as the title character. He lending his rapping skils by doing a rhyming slang known as “Leerie speak,” or rather “schpeak” with the accent as the chimney sweep in the sequel’s verion of the song Step In Time.
Directed by Rob Marshal, Mary Poppins Returns releases on December 19th, just in time for Christmas, but has aleady been given a nomination nod by the Critics’ Choice Awards
Michael Pena and Andy Garcia Join Clint Eastwood in The Mule
In The Mule, Eastwood plays an 90-year-old horticulturist and WWII veteran caught transporting $3 million worth of cocaine through Michigan for a Mexican drug cartel.
The film stars Bradley Cooper, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Peña, Dianne Wiest, and Andy García. Garcia plays a cartel head and Pena, a DEA agent (He also plays a DEA agent in Netflix Narcos: Mexico).
Notable award-winning actor Clifton Collins Jr. (Capote, Traffic) as well known Latino character actors including: Victor Rasuk (How to Make it in America, Raising Victor Vargas), Manny Montana Jr., (The new NBC series Good Girls, Graceland), Noel Guiliemi (Chicago P.D., Furious 7)
This is Eastwood’s first acting project since 2012’s Trouble with the Curve. The Mule is based on the book by Sam Dolnick.
Kristina Rivera joins Eastwood as one of the producers with music is by the great Arturo Sandoval
This raises the expectations for next year. For sure.
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