Roger Ross Williams to Direct Luchador Biopic CASSANDRO with Ted Hope Producing

Roger Ross Williams at the 2018 Woodstock Film Festival. Photo by John Mazlish.

Academy Award-winning filmmaker, longtime friend of the Woodstock Film Festival and one of the Festival's newest Advisory Board members, Roger Ross Williams (MUSIC BY PRUDENCE, THE APOLLO, THE INNOCENCE FILES) is set to direct his first feature narrative CASSANDRO, a biopic about the openly gay wrestler Saúl Armendáriz who rises to fame fighting and performing as an exótico, a male luchador who dresses in drag.

“As a filmmaker, my own life experience has inspired my passion to tell inspirational stories about outsiders and uplift the voices of people we don’t normally see on screen. The true story of Cassandro, Saúl Armendáriz, was one I knew I wanted to tell from the moment I met him. I look forward to being able to bring Saúl’s story to a wide audience,” said Williams in a quote for Deadline.

Actor Gael García Bernal (Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN, MOZART IN THE JUNGLE, THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES) will play the lead role of Armendáriz as he makes the journey from amateur Texan wrestler to becoming the first exótico to hold a UWA championship title after winning the UWA World Lightweight Championship in 1992. Veteran indie producer and 2009 Woodstock Film Festival Honorary Trailblazer Award recipient Ted Hope, Julie Goldman of Motto Pictures, and Todd Black of Escape Artists will produce. The project is expected to start shooting this November in Mexico.

Big congrats and good luck to all!

You can read the full announcement in Deadline here.