After briefly entering the Star Wars Universe to direct an episode of the popular Disney+ series, Robert Rodriguez is returning in a big way to the famous sci-fi franchise. He is an executive producer of The Book of Boba Fett that debuts Dec. 29 on the Mickey Mouse streamer. The filmmaker also gets to helm the series’ first episode. 

The new series is a spinoff of the Emmy Award-winning series The Mandalorian, which featured Fett in the season two episode titled “The Tragedy” with actor Temuera Morrison as the armored bounty hunter. That episode was directed by Rodriguez, leading to greater involvement in the franchise. 

In recent days the San Antonio-born filmmaker, a reported Star Wars fan, has been busy on social media promoting the new show with the hashtag #TheBookofBobaFett. On Twitter, Rodriguez reposted the series trailer adding, “You’ll see a tease of a cool new character in this spot.” On Facebook, the cineaste shared, “The legend of Boba Fett returns December 29 only on Disney+!” An on Instagram, he says, “He had a cool ship, a cool name, he was shrouded in mystery, and you couldn’t see his face, so he was always my favorite character.”

Portrayed as an antihero, Fett was first introduced in the Star Wars Universe in CBS’ 1978 TV movie Star Wars Holiday Special and appeared in subsequent features, including the original Star Wars Trilogy and prequel trilogies as well as other projects. They include the features The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 and, three years later, Return of the Jedi. The character’s origin is explored in the 2002 prequel feature Attack of the Clones as a young adoptive son of a well-known bounty hunter.

Disney+’s The Book of Boba Fett will not be the first time that Rodriguez directs a sci-fi project–nor may be the last. In 2019, he helmed the blockbuster Alita: Battle Angel, produced by Oscar winner filmmaker James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar, Aliens), which is Rodriguez’s highest-grossing film to date with more than $400 million worldwide. The same year he donned the directorial hat forRed11, an independent horror sci-fi thriller.

Rodriguez also helms the upcoming Hipnotic, another sci-fi thriller starring Ben Affleck, Alice Braga and JD Pardo and which is in post-production.

Known for his breakout film El Mariachi and its two sequels, Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Rodriguez is one of Hollywood’s most prominent Latino filmmakers. His other movie credits include Sin City, From Dusk Till Dawn, Spy Kids and Machete. His features have earned several accolades, including awards at the Cannes Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival, two Imagen Awards and two Alma Awards. 

Rodriguez also won a Guinness World Record Award for El Mariachi as the “lowest-budget movie to make $1 million at the US box office.” Reportedly made it for $7,000, the film grossed $2 million in the United States.

Featured Photos: Robert Rodriguez (Photo: El Rey Network) / ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ (Photo: Disney+)

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Hamilton and The Queen’s Gambit won two and one awards, respectively, at the 73rd annual Primetime Emmy Awards, which recognizes achievements in television.

The Netflix dramatic series starring Anya Taylor-Joy won Outstanding Limited Series and Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series. It competed in six categories, including Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series for Taylor-Joy. However, the Argentinian-American actress lost to Kate Winslet for her role as Mare Sheehan on HBO’s Mare of Easttown.

Disney+’s Hamilton, created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, won for Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded). Miranda himself was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie but lost to Ewan McGregor, who played fashion designer Roy Halston on Netflix’s Halston. Disney+’s Hamilton is the live recording of the acclaimed Broadway musical of the same title about America’s founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton, captured live from the Richard Rodgers Theater with the original theatre cast. Hamilton had a total of nine Emmy nominations.

One of the other few nominated Latinos actors was MJ Rodriguez, who vied for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Blanca Evangelista on FX’s Pose. She lost to Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II on Netflix’s The Crown. Still, Rodriguez made history as the first-ever transgender person to be nominated for an Emmy Award in a major acting category.

The Mandalorian, a Disney+ sci-fi series starring Chilean-American actor Pedro Pascal that is part of the Star Wars franchise, received five Emmy nominations but lost in all of them. 

Earlier in the month, another Latina won a different kind of Emmy, the Creative Arts Emmy, which honors technical and other achievements in television. Jessica Hernández won for Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming for HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show. She shared the award with Daysha Broadway and Stephanie Filo.

(See complete list of Primetime Emmy winners below.)

Featured Photo: Hamilton (Credit: Disney+)

2021 Emmy Winners

Best Limited Series: The Queen’s Gambit

Best Drama: The Crown 

Best Comedy: Ted Lasso 

Outstanding Variety Special, Pre-Recorded: Hamilton

Outstanding Variety Special, Live: Stephen Colbert’s Election Night 2020

Best Actor, Drama: Josh O’Connor, The Crown

Best Actress, Drama: Olivia Colman, The Crown

Best Actor, Limited Series or TV Movie: Ewan McGregor, Halston

Best Actress, Limited Series or TV Movie: Kate Winslet, Mare of Easttown

Writing for a Limited Series, Movie or Drama Special: Michaela Coel, I May Destroy You

Directing for a Limited Series: Scott Frank, The Queen’s Gambit

Reality Competition Program: RuPaul’s Drag Race

Best Actor, Comedy: Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso

Best Actress, Comedy: Jean Smart, Hacks

Directing for a Comedy Series: Lucia Aniello, Hacks 

Writing for a Comedy Series: Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky, Hacks

Variety Sketch Series: Saturday Night Live

Variety Talk Series: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver

Writing for a Variety Series: Last Week Tonight With John Oliver

Supporting Actor, Drama: Tobias Menzies, The Crown

Supporting Actress, Drama: Gillian Anderson, The Crown

Directing for a Drama Series: Jessica Hobbs, The Crown

Writing for a Drama Series: Peter Morgan, The Crown 

Supporting Actor, Limited Series or Movie: Evan Peters, Mare of Easttown

Supporting Actress, Limited Series or a Movie: Julianne Nicholson, Mare of Easttown

Supporting Actor, Comedy: Brett Goldstein, Ted Lasso

Supporting Actress, Comedy: Hannah Waddingham, Ted Lasso

Directing for a Variety Special: Bo Burnham, Inside

Directing for a Variety Series: Don Roy King, Saturday Night Live

Guest Actress, Comedy: Maya Rudolph, Saturday Night Live

Guest Actor, Comedy: Dave Chappelle, Saturday Night Live

Guest Actress, Drama: Claire Foy, The Crown

Guest Actor, Drama: Courtney B. Vance, Lovecraft CountryTelevision Movie: Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square

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By Ana Perez

Oscar Issac will play Francis Ford Coppola in a film about the making of The Godfather

Oscar Isaac (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker) has been cast to play Francis Ford Coppola, the legendary filmmaker, in a biopic about the making of The Godfather. Isaac, 41, will play a young Coppola and is set to star alongside Jake Gyllenhaal (Spiderman: Far From Home), who will portray Robert Evans, the former Paramount studio head who supervised production. The film will take the audience behind-the-scences and into the bitter battles of Coppola and Evans throughout the production of The Godfather. 

Isaac, a Guatemalan-American actor, who first got Hollywood’s as Llewyn Davis in the Coen Brother’s Inside Llewyn Davis, has gone on to become one of Hollywood’s most popular leading men. His star power solidified recently in big film like A Most Violent Year, Ex Machina and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. 

Isaac recently finished filming Dune, Denis Villeneuve‘s new adaptation of the classic. The release has been pushed back until October 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021 he will be seen starring inHBO’s limited series Scenes from a Marriage, which is inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s movie of the same name and Gomez in The Addams Family2.

The film, entitled Francis and The Godfather will be directed by Academy Award winning director Barry Levinson (Rain Man). The producers are Echo Lake Entertainment’s Mike Marcus, Doug Mankoff and Andrew Spaulding, as well as Kevin Turen, Jon Levin, and Baltimore Pictures’ Jason Sosnoff.

Matthew López Strikes Incredible Television Deal with Amazon

Deadline broke the news that Matthew López, the playwright behind the hit Broadway play The Inheritance, has signed an overall television deal with Amazon Studios. López, a writer on Aaron Sorkin’s HBO drama The Newsroom, is set to develop and create new projects for the streaming site. 

It is the latest overall deal for Amazon Studios, which in the last twelve months have signed up Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag, Killing Eve), Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave, Widows), Gloria Calderon Kellett (One Day at a Time) and Lena Waithe (Queen & Slim, Master of None).

López’s play The Inheritance, directed by Stephen Daldry, premiered at London’s Young Vic in 2018, transferred to the West End and opened on Broadway last year. The play is an ambitious two-part, seven-hour epic centered around a group of gay New Yorkers, 20 years after the height of the AIDs epidemic.

The Puerto Rican screenwriter and playwright has also been off-Broadway with The Whipping Man and The Legend of Georgia McBride, the latter he is adapting for the screen with The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons attached to star and produce. He has also written for Netflix and developed Plan B Entertainment and Working Title Films.

“I am incredibly excited to be partnering with Amazon Studios, alongside so many of my favorite writers and creators,” said López. “The first and last thing any artist needs is a safe place in which to create. I am grateful to the entire Amazon family for welcoming me into their home.”“Matthew is a ground-breaking talent. We have been longtime fans, but The Inheritance blew us away. His provocative, empathetic storytelling feels perfectly at home on our service,” added Albert Cheng, COO and Co-Head of Television, Amazon Studios. “We’re proud to welcome him to the Amazon family, and cannot wait for his future projects to captivate our Prime Video audiences worldwide.”

The Mandalorian premieres Friday, October 30 on Disney+

The wait for season 2 of The Mandalorian is almost over! Pedro Pascal, the Chilean-American actor will return to our screens on Friday, October 30th on Disney+. 

The first season of The Mandalorian takes the audience on the adventures of various characters in a far away galaxy, mainly focusing on familiar yet never before seen characters in the Star Wars world. 

Pascal stars in the show as the title character Mando, also known as the Mandalorian. It is later revealed that his name is Din Djarin and he is an elite bounty hunter and a member of the nearly-extinct Mandalorian people. 

During an assignment to retrieve and deliver The Child, Mando decides to disobey orders as he grows attached to Baby Yoda. The two escape from a number of enemies, many of whom have evil plans for the fan favorite Baby Yoda. 

Trick-or-treating may be cancelled this year, but at least you can watch The Mandalorian on Disney+.

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