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"What else have you got to say?" 1091 Pictures has unveiled the official trailer for an indie coming-of-age drama titled Vandal, the feature directorial debut of up-and-coming filmmaker Jose Daniel Freixas. This originally premiered at the 2019 Miami Film Festival a few years ago, and is finally getting an official VOD release this fall. The young leader of a legendary Miami graffiti crew, Nick "Damage" Cruz, looks back on his legacy and experiences love & loss while battling a longtime rival on the streets. Daniel Zovatto stars as "Damage", and is joined by Frankie J. Alvarez, Beau Knapp, Otmara Marrero, Juan Pablo Raba, Richard Schiff, Dax Rudnak, Ralph Rodriguez, Angeline Appel, Manolo Gonzalez-Vergara, and Veronica Gessa. This doesn't look like the greatest movie, but it does look authentic, made by people who actually know what it's really like to be a graffiti artist on the streets of Miami. And that makes a difference.

One to hit the market that is creating the sniff of an auction for film and TV rights: The Last Kilo: Willie Falcon and the Cocaine Era That Seduced America. The book proposal is about to hit the market through Verve, and it is written by T.J. English. His previous work, The Corporation: The Epic Story of the Cuban-American Underworld, sold to Paramount in a seven-figure deal with Benicio Del Toro attached to star and Appian Way producing.

The Last Kilo tells the story of Augusto “Willie” Falcon, who, along with partner Sal Magluta and a crew known as Los Muchachos, became the biggest cocaine smugglers in American history — more than $20 billion worth in a two-decade run. The book is based on exclusive interviews with Falcon, who, after serving a 27-year prison term, is currently living under an assumed name in an undisclosed country — to be revealed for the first time in the book.

The lineup for the 23rd annual Urbanworld Film Festival was announced Friday, with Tony-award winning broadway actor Cynthia Erivo and Emmy award-winning director Roger Ross Williams making appearances at the event, which is geared towards representing and celebrating diverse, international voices in film, music videos, television, screenplays and shorts.

Director and co-writer Kasi Lemmons will open the festival Sept 18 with her Focus Features biopic “Harriet,” following the influential life of abolitionist Harriet Tubman who led slaves to freedom through the Underground Railroad. Following the screening, star Erivo, Lemmons and executive producers Debra Martin Chase and Daniela Taplin Lundberg will discuss the film with CBS This Morning Saturday’s Michelle Miller moderating. Lemmons is this year’s festival ambassador.

Other notable films include HBO’s documentary “The Apollo,” which features archival footage to chronicle the history of Harlem’s landmark venue the Apollo Theater. A Q&a with director Williams and...

In today’s roundup, independent studio Cedar Park announced it will develop the Cuban-focused show “The Exiles,” and Anthony Hemingway will direct the pilot of series “The Purge.”

Development

Universal Cable Productions and Blumhouse Television announced that Anthony Hemingway (“Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G.”) will direct the premiere episode of USA/Syfy series “The Purge.” The show is based on the film franchise and is executive produced by the creator James DeMonaco. Thomas Kelly will be the executive producer and showrunner of the series.

Chris Long and David Ayer’s independent studio Cedar Park announced Tuesday that they are developing the Cuban-focused scripted series “The Exiles.” Jose Daniel Freixas, Tony Gonzalez, and T.J. English will serve as executive producers. Cynthia Cidre is attached as executive producer and showrunner. The show is a saga that includes political events spanning half of the 20th century, including the Cold...

Cedar Park, the independent studio formed by Chris Long and David Ayer, is partnering with Jose Daniel Freixas, Tony Gonzalez and author T.J. English, the trio behind The Corporation: An Epic Story of the Cuban American Underworld, to develop Cuban-focused The Exiles as a television series.

Emmy-nominated Cynthia Cidre is attached to pen the series and will also serve as executive producer with Ayer and Long, Exilium’s Freixas and Gonzalez, and English.

Based on research and other materials, The Exiles is described as a a multi-layered saga spanning half a century, encompassing the most significant political events of the late 20th century. The potential series follows members of the CIA as well as the Cuban exiles they recruit to carry out clandestine operations, and the games of manipulation they play with one another in the interest of patriotism, the ongoing Cold War against Communism, and the relentless pursuit of revenge against Fidel Castro.

Paramount Pictures and Appian Way have won the film rights to T.J. English's upcoming Cuban mob crime novel "The Corporation". T.J. English's book is based on the real life saga of the Cuban mob from the 1950s to the 80s in Miami and New York.

Benicio Del Toro is attached to star as Jose Miguel Battle Sr., the leader of the powerful Cuban mafia who was trained by the CIA, imprisoned, and then returned to the U.S. to begin building a crime empire that dabbled in gambling, drug trafficking and murder.

David Matthews will adapt the script while Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson, Andrew Rona, Jaydee Freixas, Tony Gonzalez and Alex Heineman are producing.

Source: THR...

After a massive bidding war, Paramount and Appian Way have won the film rights to T.J. English's upcoming Cuban mob crime book The Corporation for seven figures. Benicio Del Toro is attached to star. David Matthews, a staff writer on Vinyl, will adapt. Appian Way’s Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson are producing along with Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman of The Picture Company. Jaydee Freixas and Tony Gonzalez, who hold the rights to the book that was repped by Paradigm in the deal, also will produce. A bidding war broke out over the book earlier this week, with multiple

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Fox Television Studios has inked a first-look deal with veteran TV and film producer Elizabeth Guber Stephen, who will develop and produce cable projects through her Gables Media banner. Under the deal, Stephen and FtvS have set two projects. One is hourlong USA drama series Timeline, from best-selling author Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Raised By Wolves book series), about a female astronaut who, upon returning to Earth from a six-month mission, discovers that someone has altered her past and, in effect, rewritten her entire life. Set up at Fox and based on the 2011 film from writer-director-producers Aaron Salgado and Jaydee Freixas, Magic City Memoirs follows three wealthy, influential families whose patriarchs came to Miami 30 years ago as Cuban refugees, and whose sons are now facing the fallout from the secrets their fathers have harbored in order to obtain the “American dream.” The pilot is written by Liz Benjamin (Bones). “Elizabeth Stephen...