Carlos Lopez: Celebs Rumors

Lil Nas X’s documentary “Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero” at the Toronto Film Festival on Saturday night was delayed after a bomb threat was called in targeting the artist. The gala screening was scheduled for a 10 p.m. start at Roy Thomson Hall, one of TIFF’s premier venues.

K.J. Yossman Lil Nas X’s feature documentary has been acquired by Universal Pictures Content Group for international distribution. “Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero” is a fly-on-the-wall feature helmed by Oscar-nominated director Carlos López Estrada (“Billie Eilish: When the Party’s Over”) and filmmaker Zac Manuel.

Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero, the artist known as Lil Nas X lays down his ambitions to achieve something “great, super grand, BIG.”He might be referring to his trailblazing career as a Grammy-winning rapper-singer-songwriter, whose unabashedly queer persona and presentation garner admiration and controversy in equal measure.He could mean his first concert tour as a headliner, the Long Live Montero Tour, the American leg of which is chronicled in this film by directors Carlos López Estrada and Zac Manuel.There’s little doubt he envisions greatness for himself, Montero Hill, the self-described brat from Lithia Springs, Georgia, who uploaded his modest country-rap banger “Old Town Road” to his socials and became a global sensation.The film, a verité-style tour diary in three acts, doesn’t achieve greatness of its own, but offers glimpses at those aforementioned aspects of Montero’s super grand life.Whether rehearsing for opening night at Detroit’s legendary Fox Theatre, getting a surprise pre-show visit from Madonna, or donning his drag persona to meet his uncannily accurate Madame Tussaud’s wax figure, he rides the dizzying whirlwind of music stardom with aplomb, clearly living out a dream.Among the most compelling footage presented here is the video he shot himself in 2018, as a striving but confident 19-year-old, a month after releasing “Old Town Road” to the internet. Looking into the camera, he tallies his current follower count, promising that in a year the count will look different.

EXCLUSIVE: FX is developing a half-hour comedy series based on the 2021 This American Life segment “I Was a Teenage Smuggler.” The series will be penned by Joanna Calo, Carlos López Estrada and the story’s reporter Kevin Sieff. They will serve also executive produce alongside Ira Glass and Alissa Shipp of This American Life.

Holly Jones Netflix is readying the debut of crime original “Santo,” which bows Sept., 16, marking a new milestone for the U.S. streaming giant – its first fiction project shot between Spain and Brazil, two of its key overseas markets.  A major undertaking, the series packs experienced partners and behind-the-camera talent. Produced by Nostromo Pictures (“Through My Window”) with support from Prodigo Films (“Invisible City”), the eight-episode series  is created by Carlos López (“La Embajada”) and directed by Vicente Amorim (“Yakuza Princess”), an auteur who has consolidated in the last few years as one of Brazil’s foremost action series helmers, having been attached to direct Netflix banner title “Senna.” 

2018’s “Blindspotting” was the kind of movie that created its own viewing experience. That’s about all you need to remember before watching the new “Blindspotting,” the new series premiering on Starz on Saturday, June 13, which doesn’t demand that you rewatch Carlos López Estrada’s movie to remember specific events but recaptures that experience more than anything else.

EXCLUSIVE: Kelly Marie Tran has come aboard as an executive producer on Summertime, reuniting her with her Raya and the Last Dragon director Carlos López Estrada on his spoken-word poetry feature film that world premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Good Deed Entertainment has distribution rights to the pic, which will now get a July 9 release date in select Los Angeles and New York movie theaters before expanding a week later.

By Dave McNary