James Franco to play Fidel Castro in Aline of Cuba

We haven’t seen all that much of James Franco since sexual misconduct allegations were brought up several years ago, but the actor is still working. Deadline has reported that James Franco will be playing Fidel Castro in Miguel Bardem’s Aline of Cuba.

Aline of Cuba stars Ana Villafañe as Alina Fernandez, a Cuban exile who just happened to be Fidel Castro’s daughter. The film will follow the true-life story of Alina, “whose birth was the result of the tryst between Revuelta and Castro. Revuelta sacrificed her and her physician husband’s personal belongings and finances to help fund the start of the communist revolution. Fernandez learned that she was Fidel Castro’s daughter at the age of 10 when after years of secret visits to her home, her mother finally revealed that ‘El Comandante’ was her biological father.” Alina became one of Fidel Castro’s most outspoken critics and was arrested on more than one occasion for trying to leave. She ultimately escaped and defected to Spain. Mía Maestro will play Natalia “Naty” Revuelta alongside Ana Villafañe as Alina and James Franco as Fidel Castro.

Producer John Martinez O’Felan spoke of finding the perfect actor to play the Cuban leader.

Finding and convincing James Franco to play Castro, was a fun and challenging process and has been the collaborative work of the universe, because our director’s original order was to find an actor who holds a close physical resemblance to the real Castro to build from, along with finding someone Alina Fernandez would strongly endorse. To get there on such a tough look to cast, we used Fidel Castro’s ancient Galician heraldry as our focal compass, and then combed through the entire ranks of actors with Latin roots in Hollywood to find someone who has a similar facial structure. In executing a close search into our hopefuls through the eye of Spanish and Portuguese genealogy which the Galicians held, we found that James, by far, had the closest facial likeness of our Industry’s leading actors, meaning that the focus would be to build out his character accent and we’d have a stunning on-screen match to intrigue audiences and bring the story to life with true visual integrity. Altogether, working with such a supportive and exciting cast has been a true blessing to our team and project.

Oscar-nominated writer Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries) and Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz have penned the script, with production set to begin in and around Cartagena and Bogota on August 15th. I don’t know if I would have pegged James Franco as someone who looks like Fidel Castro, but there’s definitely a resemblance.