Photo: Kusturika's Pancho Villa looses Depp, Del Toro, García Bernal step in.
Gael García Bernal and Benicio del Toro are set to meet director Emir Kusturika in Cuba, to discuss who will become Pancho Villa on the newest film production about Mexico’s fabled revolutionary.
Johnny Depp politely declined the title role in “Seven Friends of Pancho Villa and the Woman With Six Fingers,” the latest production of Serbian auteur Emir Kusturika. Sources say he felt the role should go to a Mexican actor.
Mexican actor Gael García Bernal seems confident his trip to Cuba to meet Kusturika will result in a role “I will probably land the leading role because of physical resemblance with Pancho Villa” García Bernal said. “I believe Emir is the only director who can do the Pancho Villa story even better than any Mexican director. You know why? Because he is a kind of Pancho Villa in his own right.”
Brown–nosing, are we? Bernal might be Mexican, and he might have played revolutionary Ernesto Ché Guevara before, but, can he get nice and hefty like Villa, and somehow make his baby face (no offense) all rugged and gritty like Pancho’s? We think that’s the reason why he was chosen to play a young Ché.
Coincidentally, it is the actor who played the seasoned Ché, who could walk out with the role and smooch Salma Hayek, the only confirmed actress in the project. Benicio del Toro is expected to join García Bernal and Kusturika in Havana within the next few days, and a decision will be made, so stay tuned.
In the meantime, we created composite photos, in attempts to see which actor better fits the Pancho Villa mold. What do you think? Who is your pick? Do you think there is a better actor out there to fit the role? Let us know in our comment section!
