Mexican star Diego Boneta takes on Fidel Castro in the trailer for Killing Castro, the political thriller Lionsgate released this week, Flickering Myth reported. The film opens in theaters Dec. 11 and arrives on digital Dec. 18.
Set in New York in 1960, the story follows Castro as he prepares to address the United Nations while the CIA, the FBI and the Mafia close in on him. Castro unexpectedly moves to Harlem's Hotel Theresa at the invitation of Malcolm X, and a CIA operative, a young translator and a hotel worker get pulled into a covert plot against his life.
A cast led by Latino and Black talent
Kendrick Sampson plays Malcolm X, Al Pacino plays the CIA operative, Xolo Maridueña plays the translator and KiKi Layne plays the hotel worker. Nicole Beharie, Frankie Faison, Alexander Ludwig, Ron Livingston, Titus Welliver, Paul Ben-Victor and Logan Marshall-Green round out the ensemble. Earlier casting reports named Diego Calva as Che Guevara and Cuban actor Héctor Medina as Raúl Castro.
The film is the feature directing debut of Eif Rivera, and it premiered at the Tribeca Festival in June. Christina Weiss Lurie and Brad Feinstein produced.
The Harlem setting puts a real chapter of Black New York history at the center of a Cold War thriller, and the release gives Boneta, best known for playing Luis Miguel, one of his biggest film roles yet.
For more on the cast, see Cup of Soul's coverage of Nicole Beharie in Love, Brooklyn and KiKi Layne in The Old Guard 2.
