Ramon Rodriguez joins ‘The One and Only Ivan’
Ramon Rodriguez is joining the cast of "The One and Only Ivan." Credit: Getty Images / Jason Kempin
WHO Ramon Rodriguez
THE MOVIE “The One and Only Ivan”
THE DEAL The actor will join Angelina Jolie in an adaptation of the Newbery Award-winning children’s book, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film is a live action-animation hybrid about a silverback gorilla named Ivan (Sam Rockwell), who lives in a cage in a shopping mall with an elephant named Stella (Jolie). Rodriguez, best known as the ninja Bakuto in the Marvel television shows “Iron Fist” and “The Defenders,” will play an assistant to the mall’s owner (Bryan Cranston). Rodriguez was reportedly back on his home island of Puerto Rico helping storm relief efforts when he got word that he had landed the part.
THE MOVIE “Between the Shades”
THE DEAL Jill Salvino’s film about the nuances of sexual identity returns to the metropolitan area this weekend. Salvino, a Dix Hills native and graduate of Half Hollow Hills High School East, first screened her debut documentary at the SOHO International Film Festival last summer and then took it to roughly a dozen other festivals. It’s now in competition at the Queens World Film Festival.
INFO 6 p.m. Saturday at Kaufman Astoria Studios, 34-12 36th St., Astoria; $11-$15; 718-429-2579, queensworldfilmfestival.com
THE MOVIE “Rockaway”
THE DEAL John Budion’s semiautobiographical drama has made it to the Sunscreen Film Festival in St. Petersburg, Fla., which takes place in late April. Budion’s film, a coming-of-age film set and partly shot in Budion’s hometown of East Rockaway, has already screened at festivals in Rhode Island and on Catalina Island, California, where it won the award for best U.S. feature at the Catalina Film Festival. “Rockaway” features a number of recognizable young actors, including Eatons Neck resident Tanner Flood of Netflix’s “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and James DiGiacomo of CBS’ “Kevin Can Wait.”
