James Franco will portray Fidel Castro in an upcoming film called Alina of Cuba, Variety reports. The film centers on Alina Fernandez (Ana Villafañe), the illegitimate daughter Castro had with Cuban socialite Natalia Revuelta (Mía Maestro).
Alina of Cuba follows Fernandez’s life as a critic of Castro’s regime. Fernandez, who is serving as an on-set creative and biographical consultant to the film, supported Franco’s casting as her father. The movie is directed by Miguel Bardem and written by Jose Rivera and Nilo Cruz, and is slated to begin filming in Colombia on August 15th. Behind-the-scenes footage of the film will be featured in a documentary directed by Thaddeus D. Matula entitled Revolution’s Daughter, which will also include interviews with the real-life Fernandez.
Alina of Cuba marks Franco’s second role since he was sued by two of his former film students for sexual misconduct back in 2019. Last year, the actor-director agreed to pay over $2.2 million to settle the suit, and now, in addition to playing Castro, he will appear in the post-war drama Me, You coming from director Bille August.
Before plotting his on-screen comeback, Franco granted his first interview in almost four years last December to SiriusXM’s Jess Cagle. In the interview, Franco addressed the accusations against him, and while he didn’t explicitly apologize for the events described in the lawsuit, he said he’s been “doing a lot of work” to fix his behavior.