Bad Bunny Lands His First Lead Film Role

Bad Bunny's next starring turn won't be onstage. The music superstar (real name Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio), fresh off the Super Bowl halftime show, will headline the historical drama Porto Rico, his first lead film role after supporting parts in Bullet Train, Happy Gilmore 2, and Darren Aronofsky's Caught Stealing, reports Pitchfork. The project is the feature directing debut of fellow Puerto Rican rapper Rene Perez Joglar, better known as Residente, and is billed as an "epic Caribbean Western" rooted in the island's early history, per Variety. Edward Norton, Javier Bardem, and Viggo Mortensen are set to co-star.

Perez Joglar co-wrote the film with Oscar-winning screenwriter Alexander Dinelaris, and director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu is on board as executive producer. Calling the movie a long-held dream, Perez Joglar said it aims to confront what he calls Puerto Rico's controversial past with "intensity and honesty." The film is being produced through his 1868 Studios venture with Sony, alongside Live Nation Studios and Norton's Class 5 Films. Norton likened the project's ambitions to The Godfather and Gangs of New York, noting that pairing Residente and Bad Bunny on Puerto Rico's origin story will be like "a flame finding the stick of dynamite." No official plot synopsis has been announced, and the AP notes it's not clear when the film might start production or be released.