HispanicBusiness

A Nationwide Talent Search For A 30 Year-Old Hispanic Cop Has Began

New York, N.Y.--(HISPANIC PR WIRE)--August 25, 2003--Look out Spiderman. Move out of the way Daredevil. There’s a new superhero in town! Leaping out of the Barrio and onto the Big Screen is The Mercy Man, adapted from the best-selling novel and cult classic comic book about the bad-ass, take-no- prisoners Puerto Rican undercover cop who hunts down a bloodthirsty copycat serial killer in the Big Apple. Rider McDowell, President of Champawat Pictures, has announced that preproduction on the movie begins in September with a shooting date schedule for the spring of 2004.

Champawat Pictures will be conducting a nationwide talent search for the role of Willy Diaz, a 30-year-old NYPD undercover cop of Puerto Rican heritage. Although still in talks with Hispanic networks, part of the talent search will be televised as a reality segment so that viewers can have a chance to participate in the audition and selection process.

“The Mercy Man unites Hispanic and comic book entertainment themes, two hot contemporary Hollywood genres.” Said Rider McDowell. “Since we are looking to cast an unknown in the lead role, we are also conducting a grass roots campaign by distributing 250,000 comic books with casting information in key Hispanic areas nationwide.”

People can also visit http://www.mercyman.com to view the comic book and information on how to audition for the role. In addition, Champawat Pictures has retained Comunicados, a Hispanic communications and talent management firm, to handle talent search logistics and publicity efforts. Specifics on the open call for auditions will also be released through a media advisory on the first week of September.

For years an explosion in Hispanic-themed entertainment properties have become more imminent by the rise of Latinos as the country’s biggest minority group. This year alone, films, plays and novels about Hispanics have become the trend. Witness the success of Peter Sollett’s film “Raising Victor Vargas,” Nilos Cruz's Pulitzer prize winning 'Anna in The Tropics' scheduled for a September run, and Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez’s bestseller, The Dirty Social Club, which Jennifer Lopez and “Spiderman” producer Laura Ziskin have teamed up to develop as a movie. The Mercy Man, however, adds another hot trend to the Hispanic theme, the comic book action hero.