by the El Reportero’s news services
Benicio Del Toro
New father Benicio Del Toro is set to be playing the lead in director Arnaud Desplechin’s Jimmy Picard, according to Deadline.
Jimmy Picard is based on ethologist/psychologist Georges Devereux’s project titled Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian, and follows the friendship between Devereux (Mathieu Amalric) and Picard as the French psychoanalyst attempts to help Picard work through physical and psychological turmoil.
Picard, a member of the Plains Indian Blackfoot nation, has returned from World War II and struggles with feelings of rootlessness, alcoholism, and severe neuroses. He meets Devereux at Winter Hospital in Topeka, Kansas. The 80 meetings the two men have lead to a friendship.
The film is being produced by Desplechin’s long-time partner Pascal Caucheteux and Jennifer Roth of Black Swan.
Before Jimmy Picard however, Del Toro can been seen in Oliver Stone’s alongside Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, John Travolta, and Salma Hayek.
Mexican Actor Carlos Cobos Dies, Age 52
Award-winning actor Carlos Cobos died Wednesday of complications from a cerebral hemorrhage, Mexico’s National Council for Culture and the Arts said. He was 52.
The veteran of stage and screen passed away less than two week after receiving the Ariel – the Mexican equivalent of the Oscar – for best supporting actor on the strength of his performance in the comedy Pastorela, which took best picture honors.
Cobos, who suffered the cerebral hemorrhage last month, was unable to attend the award ceremony.
“Thank you for your genius, for your friendship, for so many hours of laughs,” the film’s director, Emilio Portes, wrote on Twitter after learning of Cobos’ death. “Good journey, brother.”
Cobos began his career at the end of the 1970s in independent theater and made his screen debut in 1986.
His films include Pachito Rex and The Legend of Zorro, starring Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Only 1.2 % of books reviewed by NY Times are Hispanic authors
According to a study recently published in the online cultural magazine, ‘The Rumpus,’ close to 90 percent of books reviewed by the New York Times in 2011 were written by white writers. Writer Roxanne Gay led the study along with her research assistant finding that of the 742 books reviewed 655 were written by Caucasian writers. Only nine works were written by Hispanic authors. The numbers were also low among other racial backgrounds.
The statistics did not come as a surprise to British writer, Malorie Blackman. Her young adult series, Noughts and Crosses, reopened the topic of racism by making the majority race in her series black. She stated, “These statistics don’t surprise me. It’s not just about the books getting reviewed, but about the diversity of the authors actually getting published. The publishing industry needs to be more diverse.”
