Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro is in Havana to coordinate the filming of Seven Days in Havana. Del Toro, 44, is part of a group of seven directors who are making this Spanish/French co-production of seven shorts, with scripts coordinated by Cuban writer and journalist Leonardo Padura. The other directors are Laurent Cantet (France), Julio Medem (Spain), Gaspar Noé and Pablo Trapero (both from Argentina), Elia Suleiman (Palestine), and Juan Carlos Tabío (Cuba).
Del Toro’s last visit to Cuba was in 2009, when he received the Tomás Gutiérrez Alea International Award from the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC). On that occasion, he was awarded the prize for his role as Argentine-Cuban revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara in the two-part film Che, by U.S. director Steven Soderbergh. In December 2008, both parts of the film were presented at the 30th International Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana.
The winner of a 2001 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in Traffic, Del Toro is being considered, along with Mexican Gael Garcia Bernal, to play the part of Pancho Villa in the film by Emir Kusturica. Based on the book The Friends of Pancho Villa, by Mexican-American novelist James Carlos Blake, the film will be titled The Seven Friends of Pancho Villa and the Woman with Seven Fingers.
For the original article, see http://www.cubaheadlines.com/2011/02/28/29796/benicio_del_toro_in_cuba.html
