Fidel Castro’s Daughter Expresses Support For James Franco As Cuban Leader In ‘Alina Of Cuba’

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Fidel Castro’s daughter, Alina Fernández, has emphasized to Deadline her endorsement of James Franco playing her Cuban leader revolutionary father in the upcoming independent feature, Alina of Cuba.

She is also proud that “the project is almost entirely Latino, both in front and behind the camera.”“James Franco has an obvious physical resemblance with Fidel Castro, besides his skills and charisma,” said Fernández about the 127 Hours Oscar nominated actor of Latin-Portuguese heritage.Fernández will be played in Alina of Cuba by Ana Villafañe.Deadline told you first that Franco would play Castro, Villafañe as Fernández and Mía Maestro as her mother Natalia “Naty” Revuelta, the Cuban-born socialite who El Comandante has a passionate love affair with.

The movie which is directed by Miguel Bardem and scripted by Oscar-nominated scribe Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries) and Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz, follows the true story of Cuban exile-turned-social advocate Fernandez, whose birth was the result of the tryst between Revuelta and Castro.“I find the selection of the cast amazing,” Fernández tells Deadline.“Ana Villafañe is extraordinarily talented, and not only as an actress because she is also a great singer, a very complete performer.

I’m sure that Mía Maestro, an actress I admire, will understand and interpret Naty, my mother, in a unique way and I can’t wait to see her building her character,” she added.In the movie, Revuelta sacrificed her and her physician husband’s personal belongings and finances to help fund the start of the Communist revolution.