News

In today’s film news roundup, the Austin Film Festival selects a Terrence Malick title, “A Day Without a Mexican” gets a sequel and Dcr Finance signs a first-look deal.

Festival Screening

The Austin Film Festival will screen Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life,” which won the Francois Chalais and Ecumenical Jury awards at the Cannes Film Festival.

Starring August Diehl and Valerie Pachner, the film follows the true story of an Austrian farmer who refused to yield to Nazi forces in World War II. Fox Searchlight will open “A Hidden Life” on Dec. 13.

The festival, which runs Oct. 24-31, is also screening the Harriet Tubman biopic “Harriet,” written by Kasi Lemmons and Gregory Allen Howard and starring Cynthia Erivo, Joe Alwyn, and Janelle Monáe. Aff will also screen “The Truth” from writer/director Hirokazu Koreeda, starring Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, and Ethan Hawke, and the world premiere of the documentary feature “Cowboys,...

Javier Chapa and Simon Wise of Mucho Mas Media (Mucho Mas) have optioned the rights and will be partnering as producers with Sergio Arau and Yareli Arizmendi on the independent feature film, “Another Day Without a Mexican: This Time It’s Personal,” the sequel to Arau’s cult hit and 2004 social satire, “A Day Without a Mexican,” the company announced on Friday.

Arau will direct and co-write the script with writer/actress Yareli Arizmendi, who wrote and starred in the 2004 film.

Joshua Maurer and Alixandre Witlin will produce under their City Entertainment banner, alongside Mucho Mas partners Chapa and Wise.

This year, the motion picture academy made history by inviting an equal number of women and men to join. In all, 842 film professionals were invited to become part of the organization that hands out the Oscars. Compare this intake to the totals of the previous five years: a record 928 in 2018; 774 in 2017; 683 in 2016; 322 in 2015; and 271 in 2014.

While Academy Awards nominees are automatically eligible for consideration, the rest of the candidates must go through a fairly cumbersome process. A candidate must meet certain branch specific requirements before even being eligible.

For example, actors must “have a minimum of three theatrical feature film credits, in all of which the roles played were scripted roles, one of which was released in the past five years, and all of which are of a caliber that reflect the high standards of the Academy.” For writers, directors and producers they need have just two of these credits.

In its continuing push to swell the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences membership ranks, 842 artists and executives from 59 countries have been invited to join this year. The branches have increasingly actively sought eligible people to become Academy members, but the Board of Governors makes the final call.

People of color (29 percent) and women (50 percent) are among the many invites, as the Academy continues to address its long-term white-male dominance. As always, actors make up the largest branch of the Academy, but many new members also come from overseas.

In 2018, the Academy invited 928 new members.

Twenty-one Oscar winners are among the new invited members, including Guy Nattiv (“Skin”), filmmaker Jimmy Chin (“Free Solo”), Phil Lord, and Chris Miller (“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”), and 82 Oscar nominees (including newbies like Lady Gaga and “Roma” breakout Marina de Tavira). Ten of the 17 branches invited more women than men. The percentage of women...

In its continuing push to swell the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences membership ranks, 842 artists and executives from 59 countries have been invited to join this year. The branches have increasingly actively sought eligible people to become Academy members, but the Board of Governors makes the final call.

People of color (29 percent) and women (50 percent) are among the many invites, as the Academy continues to address its long-term white-male dominance. As always, actors make up the largest branch of the Academy, but many new members also come from overseas.

In 2018, the Academy invited 928 new members.

Twenty-one Oscar winners are among the new invited members, including Guy Nattiv (“Skin”), filmmaker Jimmy Chin (“Free Solo”), Phil Lord, and Chris Miller (“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”), and 82 Oscar nominees (including newbies like Lady Gaga and “Roma” breakout Marina de Tavira). Ten of the 17 branches invited more women than men. The percentage of women...

Half of the 842 new members invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are women, the group announced on Monday.

The organization behind the Oscars also disclosed that 29% of the new invitees are people of color. Should those people accept, and they almost universally do, the Academy will have doubled the percentage of nonwhite people in their ranks in four years.

In 2015, people of color accounted for only 8% of the Academy body. In 2019, it stands at 16%, the Academy reported. As it stands, the Academy counts 8,946 active members, with 8,733 eligible to vote on the Oscars. The total membership including retired members is 9,794. This year’s number falls short of 2018’s record of 928 invitations.

New members in this round include “Crazy Rich Asians” director Jon Chu, actors Winston Duke and Gemma Chan, and screenwriters Ritesh Batra (“Photograph”), Chinonye Chukwu (“Clemency”), Park Young-soo (“Detective Dee”) and Ryo Sakaguchi (“Ant-Man and the Wasp...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited 842 new members in their annual effort to bring in new blood to the organization that hands out the Oscars. This is down from the 928 members invited last year, but 50% of this year’s number are women, inching closer to the goal of creating an even playing field between female and male members. It marks an 7% increase in female members from 2015 to an overall 32% of the entire organization.

A total of 29% of the new class revealed Monday are people of color, marking an 8% increase in that statistic since 2015. Among the new invitees, 21 are already Oscar winners and 82 are past Oscar nominees.

New members among the acting branch include recent Best Song winner Lady Gaga, who is also being invited to the music branch; Sterling K. Brown; Claire Foy; and actors ranging in age from 23-year-old Spider-Man Tom Holland to the (shamefully) never-nominated legendary French star,...

Lady Gaga, Claire Foy and Sterling K. Brown are among the 842 people who have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy announced on Monday.

The announcement came two days after the Academy’s Board of Governors spent a Saturday meeting going over the lists of prospective members drawn up by each of the Academy’s 17 branches. This marks the fourth consecutive year in which several hundred film professionals have been invited to join the Academy. This will easily push the number of active Academy members over 9,000 and the number of Oscars voters over 8,000 for next year’s Academy Awards.

As usual in recent years, the huge list of new-member invitations was heavily weighted toward women, who made up 50 percent of the invitees (up from 49 percent last year), and non-white film professionals, who made up 29 percent. The list was also heavily weighted toward international members,...

Sergio Arau: Filmmaker, musician, band leader, song writer and visual artist.

I met him recently at the terrific Loft Film Festival in Tucson Az along with his wonderful charming and smart wife Yareli Arizmendi.

To get this out of the way, his dad is the famous Director Alfonso Arau. In addition to directing "Like Water for Chocolate"/ "Como agua para chocolate" (1992), his directing credits include "A Walk in the Clouds" (1995) with Keanu Reeves and "Picking Up the Pieces" (2000) with Woody Allen.

Sergio the son was born in Mexico City. His wife -- they met on the set of "Like Water For Chocolate" -- is the amazing Yareli Arizmendi. They are partners in "life and film".

Their first production was a cabaret show in Mexico. "Penny Envy" was the name of it and it satirized the Us-Mexico "free trade agreement" of 1992. Yareli wrote and performed the monologues while Sergio wrote the songs, sang and played the music. The show played both in the Mexico and the United States through the Performance Art Network. The show was in universities in California, NYC and Boulder.

Sergio attended Cuec Film School from 1976 to 1980. There he directed short films, one of which went to the Film Festival in Havana. He graduated with a feature script about kids in San Luis Potosi who kidnap the Virgin of Guadalupe. He was going to make it but then in 1982 the Us $ vs the Mx Peso had a 20 times increase and his budget went away.

His "day job" during film school was as a political cartoonist for two papers, La Jornada and Uno Mas Uno.

He stopped playing music all together after the infamous mass government killings of students in 1968 when the Mexican government tried to stop all protest rock n roll, so the music went underground. In 1983 he formed the band, Botellita de Jerez.

In 1985 the band opened Rockotitlan which to this date is recognized as the breaking ground and breathing room for the 80's rock scene and important contemporary Mexican bands such as Cafe Tacvba and Caifanes amongst others. The club had two unalienable rules: Music played must be original and compositions must be in Spanish.

He began in 1990 to make music videos of his songs. He did the concept, the visuals and music. He then began to direct for other groups and other genres.

In 1998 MTV awarded him best rock video award for the Cafe Tacvba version of "Alarmala de Tos" one of Sergio's original songs.

In 1992 he moved to San Diego and by 1994 was disconcerted by the the anti-immigrant sentiment whipped up by Governor Wilson's Proposition 187.

Yareli, as a way to deal with California's blind spot, came up with "A Day Without a Mexican." The idea that if California or the nation experienced one day without a single Latino, the reality of the valuable contribution and interdependence of all would sink in.

He and Yareli were financially backed in 1997 by the Fine Arts Center Museum of Chicago to secure the premiere of the short film "A Day Without a Mexican" in 1998.

At the Guadalajara Film Fest 1998, the short won the Audience Award. It was there that Alta Vista Films (producer of Iñarritu's "Amores Perros") approached the team to work on the feature-length version. Written by both, directed by Sergio and starring Yareli, the film, with a Us $2 million budget, was released in the U.S. May 14, 2004 and six months later in Mexico. It was Mexico's highest box office for that year. The film was Televisa's first distribution experience it in the U.S., where a limited release in California, Texas, Chicago yielded Us $4.5 million in theaters, and more than 500,000 DVD were sold.

Their teaser campaign consisted of a billboard in the heart of Hollywood that read: "On May 14 there will be no Mexicans in California." People reacted strongly to the message calling radio and TV stations. Viacom, owner of the billboard space, took it down after 3 hours fearing riots. As a result there was huge U.S. national press coverage including the Wall Street Journal featured story on page one and Dan Rather Evening news.

In 2007 he shot "Naco es Chido"/ "Kitsch is Cool", a Mexican "Spinal Tap" featuring his band, Botellita de Jerez. As a distribution strategy, he took the film on the road, screening it and following it up with a live concert with the band. This lasted for 3 years, 2010-2012.

He is currently working on the sequel: "Another Day Without a Mexican: This Time It's Personal."...

The Loft Film Fest is the first American festival member of the International Confederation of Art Cinemas (Cicae), which brings together more than 3,000 screens and approximately 16 festivals across Europe and around the world to promote the production and exhibition of quality independent films from all countries in all countries.

The Cicae award is designed to bring attention to excellent films in order for them to be seen in art houses around the world. The Cicae award is given out at festivals including the Berlinale Forum and Panorama, the Sarajevo International Film Festival, the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

The Loft Film Fest jury for documentary features includes Peter Belsito, film biz consultant, fest panelist and guest blogger for SydneysBuzz on Indiewire, actress/writer/producer Yareli Arizmendi ("Like Water for Chocolate," "A Day Without a Mexican") and Beverly Seckinger, director of University of Arizona Center for Documentary and Docscapes.

The short film jury includes Francesco Clerici, director of "Hand Gestures," Max Cannon, creator of the alternative comic strip "Red Meat", and Lupita Murillo of Kvoa News 4 Tucson.

The documentaries in competition are:

"Florence, Arizona"

Florence, Arizona is a cowboy town with a prison problem. Founded in 1866, this bastion of the Wild West is home to 8,500 civilians and 17,000 inmates spread over nine prisons. Through an unconventional lens, the documentary film "Florence, Arizona" weaves together the stories of four key residents of Florence, whose lives have all been shadowed in some way by the surrounding prison industrial complex. The result is an intricately crafted cinematic tapestry, threaded through with deep strands of Americana, humor, intimacy, and pathos, revealing as much about ourselves as it does about our modern carceral state. (Dir. by Andrea B. Scott, 2014, USA, 78 mins., Not Rated) Official Selection: Doc NYC

"Chuck Norris vs. Communism"

In the 1980s, under the Nicolae Ceaușescu regime, Romanians suffered from little access to foreign goods as well as an information blackout the Communist bureaucrats used to ensure ideological purity. But in clandestine screenings at neighbors’ homes of smuggled VHS tapes dubbed by a one-man distribution network, people got a glimpse of the Western world and a culture of muscular individuality with heroes like Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sylvester Stallone, and, of course, Chuck Norris.

In "Chuck Norris vs Communism," one sees the power of film to change individuals and whole societies. Through the stories of the hardworking female dubber (the most famous voice of Romania), the memories of everyday citizens, evocative re-creations of the time, and an enormous selection of clips from ’80s movies, first-time director Ilinca Calugareanu presents a film about the unexpected consequences of mass entertainment, leading to the conclusion that the greatest threat to Ceaușescu’s dictatorship might just have been the Vcr. (Dir. by Ilinca Calugareanu, 2014, UK/Romania/Germany, in Romanian with subtitles, 83 mins., Not Rated) Official Selection: Sundance Film Festival, Hot Docs

"Bounce"

From Brazilian favelas to dusty Congolese villages, from Neolithic Scottish isles to modern soccer pitches, "Bounce" explores the little-known origins of our favorite sports.

The film crosses time, languages and continents to discover how the ball has staked its claim on our lives and fueled our passion to compete. Equal parts science, history and cultural essay, "Bounce" removes us from the scandals and commercialism of today’s sports world to uncover the true reasons we play ball, helping us reclaim our universal connection to the games we love. (Dir. by Jerome Thelia, 2015, USA / Brazil / Congo / India / Ireland / Italy / Mexico / UK, in English with subtitles, 71 mins., Not Rated) Official Selection: SXSW

"Double Digits: The Story of a Neighborhood Movie Star"

Deep in the recesses of YouTube there is an ingenious artist who cannot be stopped. He consistently churns out 3-4 original feature-length films a year. He’s made action movies, horror movies, westerns and more. He’s not rich, he has no crew, no formal training and aside from his action figures, plays virtually every part. Welcome to the inspiring, imaginative, and often handmade world of Ultra-diy filmmaker Richard ‘R.G.’ Miller, a 50 year-old man who creates impossible blockbusters from his tiny studio apartment in Wichita, Kansas. His dream audience? More than 9 people. (Dir. by Justin Johnson, 2015, USA, 76 mins., Not Rated)

"Right Footed"

Born without arms as the result of a severe birth defect, Jessica Cox never allowed herself to believe that she couldn’t accomplish her dreams. An expert martial artist, college graduate and motivational speaker, Jessica is also the world’s only armless airplane pilot, a mentor, and an advocate for people with disability. Directed by Emmy Award winning filmmaker Nick Spark, "Right Footed" chronicles Jessica’s amazing story of overcoming adversity and follows her over a period of two years as she becomes a mentor for children with disabilities and their families, and a disability rights advocate working in the U.S.A. and abroad. (Dir. by Nick Spark, 2015, USA, in English with subtitles, 82 mins., Not Rated)

"Hand Gestures"

"Hand Gestures" follows the process of creating one of Velasco Vitali’s famous dog sculptures, from wax to glazed bronze, at the Battaglia Artistic Foundry in Milan. The film observes the work of a group of skilled artisans in this 100-year old foundry and reveals the ancient traditions of bronze sculpture making, unchanged since the sixth century B.C. This method is not taught in school, but is passed on in the ancient oral tradition and through apprenticeships from artisans. This documentary observes and feels the work of the Battaglia Artistic Foundry: a place where the past and present share the same gestures and where each gesture is a sculpture itself.

An artist who sculpts, who works the waxes, is treated in the same way as a craftsman who turns that wax into bronze, building and destroying other ephemeral sculptures: they have been making the same gestures for centuries, and by showing this to the camera they reveal historical “jumps” in time. Director Francesco Clerici has made a fine-tuned, carefully-observed study of a glorious thing to watch: artisans practicing their craft on film. Winner of the Fipresci award at Berlinale Forum 2015. (Dir. by Francesco Clerici, 2015, Italy, in Italian with subtitles, 77 mins., Not Rated) Official Selection: Berlin International Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival

"Beaver Trilogy Part IV" (USA, dir. Brad Besser)

In 1979, Kutv in Salt Lake City acquired a new video camera. Trent Harris, a producer for the station’s offbeat show Extra, ventured out into the parking lot to test the new equipment and happened upon a young man taking pictures of the station’s news helicopter.

The kid, calling himself “Groovin’ Gary,” was the self-proclaimed Rich Little of Beaver, Utah. His infectious personality and small-town impressions of John Wayne, Sylvester Stallone, and Barry Manilow piqued Harris’s interest enough so he gave him a business card and asked that he alert him if anything newsworthy happened in his hometown. What happened next would become the foundation for "Beaver Trilogy," a unique collection of films that documented Harris’s multiple attempts at re-creating the original magic of the Beaver Kid. Director Brad Besser dives deep into the mystique of this cult classic, unraveling the mystery of Harris’s original inspiration. "Beaver Trilogy Part IV" explores the line between the quest for fame and the exploitation of those who pursue it. (Dir. by Brad Besser, 2015, USA, 84 mins., Not Rated) Official Selection: Sundance Film Festival, Hot Docs

The short films in competition are in two programs:

Program 1

Program 2

The awards will be presented on Sunday October 25 before the final screenings of the festival: "Mia Madre" at 7:15Pm and "Eisenstein in Guanajuato" at 7:45Pm.

Tickets and passes on sale now at www.loftfilmfest.org.

Chicago – Sometimes you get a freebie. While seemingly millions of other players were cursing the house that Houser built, stuck waiting for “Grand Theft Auto: Online” to load the first tutorial mission, I was already in and playing a day after launch.

Aware that these sorts of gifts are rare and to be cherished, I yet again harangued my buddy Mary (who you may remember from my “Fuse” and “Sacred Citadel” reviews) and we plunged well over 25 hours into this sucker.

Video Game Rating: 3.5/5.0

Character creation is…interesting, you pick your grandparents and their traits, and through a kind of convoluted series of variables arrive at a swarmy looking jamoche with several stats and nebulously defined attributes, in addition to the skills you know from “Grand Theft Auto V” like stamina, strength, driving, and so on.

From there you’re dropped into Los Santos, and you meet Lamar, of “GTA V” fame,...

I’m sure many of you have heard of or read Douglas Turner Ward’s 1965 one act play Day of Absence. As a refresher (and an introduction to those who don’t know the work) Day of Absence is set in a southern town where one day the white residents, to their shock and utter horror, wake to find that most of the town’s black people have vanished. The only remaining black people are in comas, and some of the folks they thought were white…well, turns out they’ve vanished too. Panic ensues as the whites realize that there’s no one to shine shoes, raise their kids, and clean their houses (among other things). The town mayor makes a national plea for the return of the black people, and if he can’t have them back, well, maybe some other blacks will do just fine. By the...

New York -- Spanish-language media giant Univision Communications is pushing further into original production and co-production, unveiling Monday the creation of Univision Studios.

Industry veteran Luis Fernandez will head up the operation as president, reporting to Univision Networks president Cesar Conde, who took over the job in October. Univision Studios will be based in Miami.

Univision has an exclusive content deal with Grupo Televisa through at least 2017, and both sides have signaled an interest in potentially continuing that relationship beyond that. However, Monday's news also helps Univision with its goal of boosting its own output.

The company said Univision Studios will build on the 4,000 hours of original programming that it already produces annually. It will work on telenovelas, reality shows, dramas and entertainment specials for all of the company's networks and platforms.

"The creation of Univision Studios is a transformational step in the development and growth of our company and an important,...

Roadside Attractions is releasing both Good Hair and From Mexico with Love today. We all know about Good Hair, the Toronto premiering doc by Chris Rock inspired by his daughter’s hair styling concerns. Check out Roadside Attraction’s Facebook Page and you’ll see more on this hands-down, well-loved film.

It’s From Mexico with Love which offers the challenge and possible new insights into distribution to the niche Mexican audience. Starring Kuno Becker a big star in Mexico and known here for the Goal Films and costarring Danay Garcia, a well loved Mexican telenovela star who also has a regular role in Fox's upcoming series Prison Break, it will be released on 281 screens in California, New Mexico and Arizona. (Good Hair will go out on 185 screens.)

The film is a Rocky-esque inspirational story in which a washed-up trainer takes a self-destructive young boxer under his wing. It is...

Border Stories dubs itself “a Mosaic Documentary,” and, not unlike mosaics, this collection of 22 shorts has an elevated, canonical, yet still modest air. The short, five-minute-or-less film vignettes successfully bring each side of the U.S.-Mexican border closer together in our minds by drawing attention to our shared universality and humanity. Made up of a three-person crew (plus one web producer), and ring-led by Ben Fundis, each episode is smartly shot, and the interviews well-conducted. One of the more compelling pieces concerns Jose Rivera, an 18-year-old who, though raised in America, was deported to Mexico after getting into a fight with a friend and left in jail due to lack of a social security number. As Rivera is interviewed on a bench outside in Nogales, we become aware of the backdrop of locals just behind him, who appear indifferent to his story. The starkness of Rivera’s tale, along...

Sundance's 25th year event is remarkably quiet, almost unreal. Allowing a look at the reality, conversations actually can take place. The late night lounge is the place to see everyone after 10 and to talk more. Filmakers Bill Benenson and Eleonore Dailly, producer Gene Rosow and marketer Jeff Dowd hosted the Obama Inauguration party which also celebrated their film Dirt The Movie. Veteran Sundance community members, Nicole Guillemet, former director of Sundance, Paula Silver, Ira Deutschman, Susan Margolin, Todd McCarthy, Sasha Alpert, Mickey Cotrell and so many others bonded with joy as we all listened to the message delivered by President Obama. John Sloss's Cinetic party and William Morris Independent's parties were not as mobbed as in years past. The two films I have heard most praised are Push and The Cove. Latino film buzz is around Sin Nombre. Written and directed by Peter Bratt and starring his brother Benjamin Bratt and Jesse Borrego, La Mission and Don't Let Me Drown starring Yareli Arizmendi, who wrote and produced A Day Without a Mexican, one of the breakout Latino hits some years ago. I would most like to see Mark Stewart's Passing Strange, a Fairfax district Los Angeleno's work about "black folks passing as black folks" and other essentialist curiosities of American life as written up in Sundance Film Festival's Daily Insider of Day 3, Sunday January 18, 2009. Peter Rainer liked Art & Copy and was surprised to learn that it was originally intended as a promotional work of ad agencies. Kirk Honeycutt remarked to Peter Rainer and me how the films are so "lab-worked over". Does the professional finish of a lab make up, improve on or only mask the faults of a filmmaker's first work? Is it like a butterfly being helped to fly (and thereby not developing its own wings) or does it make the beginning filmmaker better? Mary Jane Skalski is here with two films, Dare and Against the Current. Steven J. Wolfe, who has worked on 35 films and has produced five with Jennifer Tilley, who is now playing professional poker, had his film 500 Days of Summer already placed with Fox Searchlight for U.S. and the world, so he was able to enjoy Sundance after 10 years absence from it. Senator picked up North American rights to Brooklyn's Finest. Visit Films picked up worldwide rights to Sundance world doc competition film Kimjongilia]and Spectrum title, The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle. The Canadian distribution rights to Cold Souls have been acquired by E1 Films. Opening night film Max and Mary was a huge success and well attended by acquisition and studio executives. Twentieth Century Fox had a team of 8, Lionsgate's Tom Ortenberg, Steve Beeks and Jason Constantine were there along with every other buyer. The film that landed with Icon when Icon acquired Becker International will soon announce a North American distribution deal. CinemaVault acquired international rights for Spectrum film Lymelife which originally premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival and was picked up for US shortly after by Screen Media. Stephen Raphael is working on the U.S. marketing for the film. HBO has acquired TV rights to Burma VJ the hit of November’s IDFA whose North American debut was Saturday at Sundance. The the film will open theatrically at New York’s Film Forum in May, well ahead of its early 2010 HBO television debut. [Sony Classics acquired North American rights acquisition of Rudo Y Cursi having its U.S. premiere at Sundance.

Televisa Cine USA, the U.S. distribution arm of Mexico's Televisa Cine, will release Alejandro Lozano's Matando Cabos (Killing Cabos) domestically in June, Eckehardt Von Damm, president of the two distribution companies, said Wednesday. Lightning Entertainment co-president Richard Guardian said his company has picked up international rights to the dark comedy. Televisa Cine opened Cabos in July in Mexico where it went on to gross $7 million. Televisa's previous stateside distribution effort, A Day Without a Mexican, earned more than $4 million at the U.S. boxoffice. Cabos, which stars Ana Claudia Talancon (The Crime of Father Amaro), Pedro Armendariz (Once Upon a Time in Mexico) and Tony Dalton (Clase 406), was produced by Lemon Films, the production shingle of brothers Billy Rovzar-Diez-Barroso and Fernando Rovzar-Diez-Barroso.

Televisa Cine USA, the U.S. distribution arm of Mexico's Televisa Cine, will release Alejandro Lozano's Matando Cabos (Killing Cabos) domestically in June, Eckehardt Von Damm, president of the two distribution companies, said Wednesday. Lightning Entertainment co-president Richard Guardian said his company has picked up international rights to the dark comedy. Televisa Cine opened Cabos in July in Mexico where it went on to gross $7 million. Televisa's previous stateside distribution effort, A Day Without a Mexican, earned more than $4 million at the U.S. boxoffice. Cabos, which stars Ana Claudia Talancon (The Crime of Father Amaro), Pedro Armendariz (Once Upon a Time in Mexico) and Tony Dalton (Clase 406), was produced by Lemon Films, the production shingle of brothers Billy and Fernando Rovzar-Diez-Barroso.