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Antonio Banderas To Star As Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés

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Antonio Banderas has signed on to star as Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés in Cortés, a feature film directed by French filmmaker Paul Mignot from a screenplay by Nicholas Kazan.

Production is already underway in Paris, with additional shooting scheduled in Spain.

Utopai Studios and Ex Machina Studios are partnering on the project. Marco Weber is producing. Utopai Studios will lead sales and distribution in the United States, Canada, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Ex Machina Studios will lead sales and distribution across most of Europe, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand.

The film’s synopsis reads: Set in 1519, Cortés begins in Cuba, where a restless soldier hungry for glory seizes command of an expedition to the Yucatán and sails without permission. After landing on the coast of what is now Mexico, he meets Marina, an enslaved Indigenous woman and gifted linguist who becomes indispensable to his advance. As Cortés turns fragile alliances, faith, and fear into instruments of conquest, Marina watches him transform from a daring outlaw into a self-anointed messiah.

“Cortés is exactly why we built Utopai Studios,” said Cecilia Shen, Co-Founder and CEO of Utopai Studios. “Our job is to build the production around that vision. Nicholas has written an extraordinary screenplay, Paul has a clear cinematic point of view, and Antonio brings the humanity needed at the center of it. We want to give them the ability to make the film they set out to make.”

Mignot’s previous credits include the historical feature Vaincre ou Mourir. He has also directed campaigns for BMW, Porsche, Audi, Lexus, Jeep, L’Oréal, Louis Vuitton, and Emporio Armani.

Kazan received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for his adapted screenplay for Reversal of Fortune. His screenwriting credits also include Frances, Patty Hearst, Matilda, Fallen, and Bicentennial Man.

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Cynthia Erivo Hopes ‘Prima Facie’ Causes Debate About Lack of Consent

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Cynthia Erivo knows when to say “yes” and “no” to roles, and she hopes her new film will cause a debate about how the word “no” is received in human relationships and society.

That was one of the takeaways from the star’s jam-packed Monday Screen Talk during the 70th edition of the BFI London Film Festival (LFF), which runs through Oct. 18.

In a wide-ranging chat, the Emmy, Tony and two-time Grammy winner and three-time Academy Award nominee discussed her career, including her latest film, Prima Facie, in which she plays a lawyer who becomes a rape victim. Erivo previously told THR that the work on the film would make her “feel sick and angry.”

The star hopes that the film can help start a debate about “preconceived notions about how Black women particularly experience pain” and consent more generally, along with how we hear and accept a “no” in a broader sense. “We expect more violence for her to feel the pain. We expect her to be more in pain than we see,” Erivo shared. “And hopefully, when people watch this movie, you will understand that it’s a violent act.”

She also said: “Consent is sometimes hard for all of us to comprehend. That it’s a big complex thing that is more to do with the way we receive ‘no’ than the way we see a ‘yes.’ Now we can have a conversation about that more than about the rape. It really is about the consent and the way her lack of consent is received.”

During her appearance, Erivo also lauded the intimacy coordinator and her co-star Daniel Ings. About Ings she said that he, “from the beginning, was very, very kind and immediately wanted to have a conversation about how we could be protective of one another and how we could be helpful in those places, at those moments, so that we could go as far as we needed to go, and then come back again.”

And she argued: “I think not enough credit is given to intimacy coordinators. They’re often given a hard time for the work that they have to do on the set. But the work that they do is really important, and it isn’t just about choreographing a scene, a sex scene, a love scene, romantic scene — it’s about sometimes having to not just choreograph these really hard, harrowing scenes but also making sure that everybody comes back to their bodies safely.”

Erivo on Monday also mentioned sharing a “no” quite regularly when she is offered roles, highlighting: “I feel like I have an internal metronome that tells me when something is right for me, and when something is not.” As a result, “I say no to a lot of things,” the actress explained.

When portraying real people, she said she is “playing these women who brought wonderful things into the world, probably because I care about these women very deeply, and I want the world to see them as they were — in all their complexity and all their greatness, and some of their failings, because they’re human. What I love about these women, I guess, is the deep humanity that each of them holds and carries.”

When Erivo was approached about Prima Facie, “I just knew immediately that I wanted to do this because I knew how important it was,” the star recalled. “I also I had this feeling that it was more important than I was even aware of, and I wanted to be part of it.”

With her production company, she is looking to tell complex stories with complex characters, including vehicles for great young actors. Erivo mentioned, for example; that she wants to find something interesting for Demi Singleton.

Questioned about her own mentors, she shared that Michelle Yeoh is among the great stars who are checking in with her and “looking out for me.” Erivo even recalled, to audience laughter, that Yeoh asked her in between Wicked scenes when she would direct for the first time. And she shared: “She asks me the question every time I see her.”

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‘VisionQuest’ Release Schedule: When Are New Episodes Streaming?

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The third and final installment of the WandaVision universe, VisionQuest, will focus on Paul Bettany’s synthetic superhero.

First introduced cinematically in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Vision was created by placing J.A.R.V.I.S. (also voiced by Paul Bettany) into a Vibranium body that villain Ultron (James Spader) intended to inhabit, with the help of the Mind Stone.

VisionQuest will see him return following the events of WandaVision, which picked up after the character’s tragic death in Avengers: Infinity War (2018) when Thanos killed him to complete his gauntlet with the Mind Stone.

Find release rollout details for Marvel’s VisionQuest below:

When does VisionQuest come out?

Marvel’s VisionQuest arrives on the small screen Wednesday, October 14.

How many episodes are in VisionQuest? Will new episodes arrive weekly or all at once?

There will be eight episodes in the latest MCU television installment. It will premiere with the first two episodes, and release two episodes per week for the following two weeks before the penultimate episode and finale arrive one per week in November. See the full release rollout, complete with episode titles, below:

  • Wednesday, October 14: Episode 1: “No Strings” & Episode 2: “Theseus”
  • Wednesday, October 21: Episode 3: “Reboot” & Episode 4: “Malware”
  • Wednesday, October 27: Episode 5: “Firewall” & Episode 6: “Deadlock”
  • Wednesday, November 5: Episode 7: “Immolation”
  • Wednesday, November 10: Episode 8: “Forever”

What is VisionQuest about?

Rebooted and hiding out after escaping those who aimed to use him as a weapon, Vision searches for purpose by consulting F.R.I.D.A.Y., E.D.I.T.H., J.A.R.V.I.S. and Ultron, all of the AI personas embedded into his programming. A bounty placed on his head threatens his existence lying low and sends him on the run with the mysterious Thomas Shepherd (Ruaridh Mollica), who might be Vision’s son reincarnate and brother to Joe Locke’s Billy Maximoff, formerly Billy Kaplan. Vision must get to the root of Thomas’ identity while resisting Ultron’s influence, evading capture and confronting his true nature.

Who is in the cast of VisionQuest?

Joining Bettany, Mollica and Spader are Todd Stashwick as the morally grey mercenary anti-hero Paladin as well as Faran Tahir, who reprises the role of Raza, Ten Rings leader from Iron Man (2008). Deadline has also confirmed that Lauren Morais and Diane Morgan have joined the cast, which also includes Orla Brady, Polly Frame, Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, with Emily Hampshire and James D’Arcy.

RELATED: SCAD Film Festival’s TV Sidebar To Feature ‘The Good Daughter,’ ‘Furious,’ ‘VisionQuest’ & ‘The Lowdown’

We hear Morais will play Lisa Molinari, a character closely connected to Ruaridh Mollica’s Thomas Shepherd, and Morgan is playing an associate of Stashwick’s character, Paladin.

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Deadline Launches 2026 Contenders London Streaming Site

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Deadline on Monday launched the streaming site for Contenders Film: London 2026, featuring all the panel conversations from our showcase of movies that are firing up the movie-awards season.

The cast and creatives from 12 leading awards contenders appeared over the weekend at the in-person-only event, which unspooled at London’s Ham Yard Hotel. Discussions delved deep into the journey behind these awards-season projects, as stars and filmmakers revealed the stories behind their latest movies.

This year’s lineup comprised Netflix’s anticipated Brad Bird feature Ray Gunn, Danny Boyle’s Venice debut Ink and Cannes buzz films La Bola Negra and Gentle Monster; Bleecker Street/StudioCanal was on stage with Mike Leigh’s well-received Tender Loving Care, and Bleecker also had Telluride launch The Liberation; Nat Geo was present with death-defying story Everest: The Other Side; Laika showcased its long-gestating stop-motion fantasy Wildwood; Apple Original Films had Siân Heder’s drama Being Heumann; Sony Pictures Classics repped Bunker with Penélope Cruz joining the conversation; Alexander was on stage with Rwandan Oscar hopeful Ben’Imana; and Amazon MGM Studios showcased its blockbuster hit Project Hail Mary.

The lineup of panelists for the event included Cruz, Brad Bird, Danny Boyle, Jack O’Connell, Mike Leigh, Kate O’Flynn, Carrie Coon, Heder, Ruth Madeley, Léa Seydoux, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin and many more.

The London event starts off our slate of Contenders Film events that includes the in-person Contenders Film: Los Angeles on November 14, and the virtual Contenders Film: International on December 5 and Contenders Film: International on December 6.

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