James Franco will play Fidel Castro in movie after 'getting approval' from leader's daughter
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James Franco has been cast as Fidel Castro in an upcoming movie about the communist leader's daughter.
Deadline reports the Academy Award nominee landed the role of the Cuban revolutionary for Miguel Bardem's Alina of Cuba.
The film will focus on Alina Fernández Revuelta, who exiled herself to Spain after years of being one of her father's most outspoken critics.
She lived in Cuba until 1993 when she fled to the European country using using false papers and a wig, which reportedly attracted a lot of attention at the time.
Mía Maestro has been cast as Natalia 'Naty' Revuelta, who engaged in a romance with Castro and fell pregnant with their child.
Naty kept Alina's bloodline a secret from her daughter until she was 10 when she said the man known as 'El Comandante' was her dad.
Ana Villafañe will play Alina in the movie, while the screenplay if being concocted by Oscar-nominated Jose Rivera and Nilo Cruz.
Deadline reports filming will begin later this month and will be concentrated in Colombia's Cartagena and Bogota.
The news outlet says those cities have Castro-era architecture and will suit the film's aesthetic perfectly.
The film's lead creative producer, John Martinez O’Felan, told Deadline: “Since the inception of the film, our focus has been to produce an artistic piece of modern Hispanic history, with the vision for the project as being truly inclusive through uniting actors and creatives from both intergenerational and recent Latin roots from the U.S, Latin America, and the world."
He said getting Ana and Mia were 'no-brainers' because they represent 'modern Cuban-America' as well as 'Argentina'.
Alina Fernández is serving as a biographical consultant for the film and gave her blessing for James Franco to take the role of Fidel Castro, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Martinez O'Felan revealed they have a few tricks up their sleeve to make Franco look like a convincing Castro.
"To bring the character of Fidel Castro to life, working with James Franco, will be his long-time makeup collaborator Nana Fischer (Golden Globe winner, The Disaster Artist) and dialect coach Jessica Drake (The Batman, Bohemian Rhapsody), who he brought with him," John said to EW.
There's no release date set for Alina of Cuba as the project is still in pre-production.
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