Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz to star in new film by Iranian director

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi will be directing a movie starring married couple Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, set in Spain.

Photo Javier Bardem by David Torcivia  - Penelope Cruz by Joelle Maslaton  / CC BY-SA-3.0

Penelope Cruz told the Barcelona newspaper, La Vanguardia about the new project. She said the movie will be filmed in Spain, but as yet the location is unknown. Cruz, 42, said the film will be an “intense drama which is a gift for actors.” She said it was a luxury to work with Farhadi, the winner of a foreign-language Oscar in 2012 for the film “A Separation.”

Farhadi is reportedly working on the original screenplay for the new movie and shooting is set to begin next year. While the plot is mostly under wraps for now, the story reportedly revolves around a family of winemakers living in rural Spain.

Cruz, Bardem to star in new Farhadi film - Oscar-winning Spanish actors Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem will st... https://t.co/nprHxAFWNT

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Bardem and Cruz were married in 2010 in the Bahamas, but first met when filming “Jamon, Jamon” back in 1992 – one of Cruz’s first films. They are currently working on another film together. The movie “Escobar” is about the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, with Bardem in the role of the drug lord and Cruz playing his lover, journalist Virginia Vallejo.

This will be their first movie appearance together since the 2008 Woody Allen romantic comedy, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," where they starred with Scarlet Johansson. Cruz won a supporting actress Oscar for her role in the film. For his part, Bardem, 47, won a supporting actor Oscar in the 2007 crime thriller "No Country for Old Men.” 

Cruz went on to say how excited they are to be working together on Farhadi’s new film.

"No one planned it. And we are not going to work together in everything, but if things come up (for both of us) and they make sense, why not?"

Source: The Local

Sean Penn and Javier Bardem movie blocked by Barcelona bullfight ban

Javier Bardem and Sean Penn have been in Barcelona filming their new movie, "The Gunman," for most of July. However, they have run into a problem filming the bullfighting scene, due to the Catalan ban on the sport.

The film is being produced by French director Pierre Morel, well known for the action movies "The Transporter" and "Taken."

Morel ran into a problem while filming the latest film "The Gunman", which is set partly in Barcelona. The city's Town Hall stopped him from staging the bullfight scene in Barcelona’s La Monumental bullring, saying it would go against animal right laws recently introduced in the region.

Film producer Adrián Guerra told Catalan daily El Periódico, “The scene wasn’t actually going to take place on the arena."

“All we wanted to film were a few bullfighting passes with the cape in the streets and the bullpens, not to actually fight the animals,” he added. 

However Barcelona's Town Hall wishes to disassociate the Catalan capital from Spain’s image of a bullfight-loving society.

It now seems that Morel will get around the problem by using oxen in the scene rather than bulls. His team will have to use computer-generated imagery to make the oxen resemble Lidia bulls on screen.

The bullfighting ban in the Catalunya region was passed in Parliament in 2012 and was supported by animal rights groups, but was opposed by detractors who claimed the practice was “an asset of cultural interest.” 

The video below shows scenes of the filming in Barcelona.

The film is an adaptation of Jean-Patrick Manchete's 1981 war novel, "The Prone Gunman."

The plot of the movie is an international spy must clear his name in order to save himself from the organization that he used to work for. Main stars: Idris Elba, Javier Bardem, Sean Penn.



To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/355441

Actress Penélope Cruz gave birth to baby girl on same day as Royal baby

It wasn't only royals celebrating on Monday as a great Spanish couple, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, welcomed the arrival of their second child on Monday.

The Academy Award-winning couple are celebrating a new addition to their family. Penélope Cruz gave birth to her baby daughter at Ruber International hospital in Madrid on the same day that the Duchess of Cambridge delivered her baby son.

Spanish publicist for 39-year-old Cruz, Javier Giner, said, "She's tremendously happy and very excited."

The new addition to the family is the second child of the celebrity couple. Bardem and Cruz already have a two-year-old son, named Leonardo, who was born in 2011.

As was the case when their son was born, the couple chose not to provide any more details about the newest member of their family. Naturally this low-key media experience is in stark contrast to that of the royal birth, as the UK's Duke and Duchess of Cambridge also saw the arrival of their child on Monday. 

The news comes shortly after Cruz reportedly visited her younger sister, Monica, in a Madrid hospital, where Monica also gave birth to a baby girl.

Cruz married fellow Academy Award winner Bardem in 2010, and Leonardo, their first child was born in Los Angeles in 2011.

The couple are the only Spanish actors to have won Academy Awards, both in supporting roles. The couple first met on the set of a Spanish film in 1992. However, they only actually got together as a couple after starring in Woody Allen's 2008 comedy "Vicky Cristina Barcelona", which was based, naturally, in Barcelona.

Cruz was recently heard to say: "I want my son and my kids - if I have more - to grow up in a way that is as anonymous as possible. 

"The fact that his father and I have chosen to do the work we do doesn't give anybody the right to invade our privacy."

The pair will have joint supporting roles in the movie "The Counsellor," directed by Ridley Scott and scheduled for release later in the year. The movie has a great cast including Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz, Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt. 

The teaser preview is included below: 

To the source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/355014