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Gomez & Hawke in “Getaway,” Derbez & Peralta in “Instructions Not Included” both in Theaters Today

L-r: Charlie Picerni, Courtney Solomon and Xzibit
©2013 Angela María Ortíz S.

We’ve spoken about Getaway and Instructions before, but with both of them opening wide, Se Fija!Had a chance to speak with some of the people in front and behind the camera about both of these new features.

L-r: Courtney Solomon and Angela Ortíz
©2013 Teresa Garza

Getaway’s director, Courtney Solomon, and the movie’s stunt coordinator Charlie Picerni spoke with us at a recent L.A. Q&A session sponsored by Warner Bros and hosted by rapper Xzibit. The film is a high-speed chase that’s more suited to the video-game demographic, and Solomon admitted: that was the plan. Still, finishing the film was no easy task. Filmed in Bulgaria without the use of CGI, more than 130 cars were destroyed during the shoot, and more than sixty small cameras that were used to film the action sequences were actually lost in the process, along with plenty of other very expensive equipment. Then the editing of all that hard-work footage took a year to complete. All in all, simply finishing it was an amazing feat, but the film fulfills its roller-coaster ambitions on a shoestring budget.

Meanwhile, Instructions Not Included, Eugenia Derbez’ labor of love, is opening as well. We had a wonderful moment with him and his young protégé Loreto Peralta. You can read what happened with the duo, or simply watch the edited interview here.

As the summer draws to a close, and ‘big’ movies seem many weeks away, it’s good to see two ambitious ‘little’ films with Latinos in front and behind the camera making their own ways in movie theaters. More as the trend develops…