Édgar Ramírez
Ramirez has been in a dozen action pictures, but now he finally takes center stage in a wildly “re-made” version of the cult classic
Most reports still have the “in negotiations” escape clause attached, but it look like Édgar Ramírez is being tapped to star in the upcoming “re-creation” of the classic 1991 action-thriller Point Break. He’ll play Bodhi, the character made famous by Patrick Swayze in Kathryn Bigelow’s original film.
(Think about all that for a moment: Point Break, the film that helped to make the careers of Swayze, Bigelow, and Keanu Reeves, is going to be close to twenty-five years old by the time the remake hits the screens in August 2015. Meanwhile Bigelow has gone on to become arguably the most respected female director working in film today, with films like The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. You have to wonder if Bigelow had something to do with the selection of Ramírez after Gerard Butler left the project; Ramírez was part of her multi-award-winning Zero Dark Thirty.)
L-r: Édgar Ramírez, Robert De Niro and Rubén Blades
Hands of Stone
Though Ramírez himself has appeared in a number of action/adventure/thriller films, including The Bourne Ultimatum and Wrath of the Titans, this is the first time he’s likely to appear above the title, along with relative newcomer Luke Bracey, who will take on the role made famous by Reeves. Before that appears, we’ll see Ramírez as Roberto Duran in Hands of Stone, as a renegade priest in the possession/horror film Deliver Us From Evil with Eric Bana, and in the new Bryan Cranston thriller Holland, Michigan, coming in 2015 as well.
Interestingly, Ramírez is as well-known for his dramatic roles as his action work, including his roles in The Counselor, in the Che miniseries and as the lead in Carlos the Jackal. We can hope he’ll have the chance to bring as much humanity as action to the remake–a remake that reportedly abandons the surfing world for extreme sports, while retaining the premise of the FBI agent infiltrating that world to stop an international heist.
For years, there has been a call from the Latino community for the development of a true Latino “action hero,” like Schwarzenegger or Willis. Maybe this is the ‘break’ we’ve all been waiting for. Principle photography begins later this year; the release date has recently been set for August 7, 2015.
