James Franco to Play Fidel Castro in Biopic ALINE OF CUBA and John Leguizamo Is Not Happy About It
James Franco (Pineapple Express, 127 Hours, The Disaster Artist) has signed on to play Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Alina of Cuba opposite Imagen Award winner Mía Maestro, who is set to play Natalia “Naty” Revuelta, the Cuban-born socialite he has a passionate love affair with. The film is being directed by Miguel Bardem, from a screenplay by Oscar-nominated scribe Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries) and Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz.
They join previously announced actress Ana Villafañe, who is portraying Alina Fernandez, aka Castro’s daughter. The story follows the true-life story of Cuban exile turned social advocate, Fernandez, whose birth was the result of the tryst between Revuelta and Castro. Revuelta sacrificed her and her physician husband’s personal belongings and finances to help fund the start of the communist revolution. Fernandez learned that 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 grew to become one of Castro’s most outspoken critics, arrested on more than one occasion for trying to leave, and was classified as a dissident forbidden to travel outside of Cuba. Ultimately, she defected to Spain in 1993, an event that drew headlines from every major news network around the world, before she made Miami her permanent home.
Rounding out the supporting cast are Alanna de la Rosa, Maria Cecilia Botero (Encanto), Harding Junior, and Cuban-born actors Sian Chiong and Rafael Ernesto Hernandez.
The movie is being shot entirely on location in and around Cartagena and Bogota, with Colombia’s colonial Spanish architecture and design playing for Castro-era Havana, Cuba.
John Leguizamo is not happy about the casting and slammed it, saying: “How is this still going on? How is Hollywood excluding us but stealing our narratives as well? No more appropriation Hollywood and streamers! Boycott! This F’d up! Plus seriously difficult story to tell without aggrandizement, which would be wrong! I don’t got a [problem] with Franco but he ain’t Latino!”
The film is set to start shooting on August 15th.
via: Deadline