Franco to play Fidel Castro in film
James Franco is working his way back into the spotlight.
The 44-year-old Oscar-nominated actor — who has largely been out of the spotlight since 2018 when he was the subject of sexual misconduct allegations by five women — will portray Fidel Castro in “Alina of Cuba.”
The indie project will center on the life of Alina Fernandez, played by Ana Villafane, the illegitimate daughter of the Cuban revolutionary and his critic. The film, on which Fernandez is a consultant, is expected to start filming later this month in Colombia.
Last month, it was announced that Franco would have a role in Billie August’s post-war film, “Me, You,” due out next year. Franco has not appeared on screens big or small since 2019, when HBO’s “The Deuce” wrapped. That year, he also had a voice role in “Arctic Dogs.”
Franco and his associates in 2021 agreed to pay more than $2.2 million to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit in Los Angeles.
Lady Gaga joins ‘Joker’ sequel:
Lady Gaga has officially joined the cast of Warner Bros.’ “Joker” sequel opposite Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck. After weeks of speculation about the Grammy and Oscar winner’s involvement in the project, Gaga confirmed the rumors Thursday by posting an animated clip of herself and Phoenix dancing in silhouette to the standard “Cheek to Cheek.”
The promotional video also reveals a title and release date for the film: “Joker: Folie a Deux,” out Oct. 4, 2024.
Gaga is expected to play unhinged Gotham City villain Harley Quinn in the follow-up to 2019’s “Joker,” a dark origin story about Batman’s cackling nemesis that was nominated for 11 Oscars. Phoenix took home the prize for lead actor.
Unlike its predecessor, “Joker: Folie a Deux” will be a musical, which likely contributed to casting a world-renowned musician as the female lead.
Gyllenhaal to star in ‘Road House’ reboot:
Jake Gyllenhaal will star in a reboot of one of Patrick Swayze’s most beloved movies. The 1989 cult classic “Road House,” in which Swayze played a psychology degree-holding bar bouncer in small-town Missouri, is getting revived for Amazon Prime Video. Billy Magnussen, Lukas Gage, Daniela Melchior and Gbemisola Ikumelo have also joined the film.
Gyllenhaal, plays — according to Amazon — “a former UFC fighter who takes a job as a bouncer at a rough-and-tumble roadhouse in the Florida Keys, but soon discovers that not everything is what it seems in this tropical paradise.”
Author Bank dies: Melissa Bank, whose 1999 bestseller “The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing” was a series of interconnected stories widely praised for its wit and precise language and embraced by young readers, has died at age 61. Viking Books announced that Bank died Tuesday in New York. She had lung cancer.
Aug. 8 birthdays: Actor Nita Talbot is 92. Actor Dustin Hoffman is 85. Actor Larry Wilcox is
75. Actor Donny Most is
69. Journalist Deborah Norville is 64. Guitarist The Edge is 61. Rapper Kool Moe Dee is 60. Singer JC Chasez is 46. Singer Drew Lachey is 46. Actor Tawny Cypress is 46. Actor Meagan Good is 41. Singer Shawn Mendes is 24.