'Killing Castro' Premieres at Tribeca with Pacino
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- "Killing Castro" premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival, a political thriller directed by Eif Rivera that reimagines Fidel Castro's 1960 Harlem stay and the convergence of CIA, FBI, and Mafia forces that followed his UN arrival in New York.
- Al Pacino plays a CIA operative orchestrating a covert plan to eliminate Castro, and is seen in newly released footage in conversation with mobsters Sam Giancana (Paul Ben-Victor) and Johnny Roselli (Logan Marshall-Green).
- Diego Boneta stars as Castro, who in the film relocates to Harlem's Hotel Theresa at the invitation of Malcolm X (Kendrick Sampson), with Xolo Maridueña as a young translator caught between surveillance and trust and KiKi Layne as a hotel worker drawn into the widening web.
- Boneta called the role "the most challenging thing I've ever done," citing the physical transformation, training, and preparation it demanded, and said the cast and crew made it the most rewarding experience of his career.
- Director Eif Rivera said the script captured "a piece of history that was largely unknown," noting he grew up near the Hotel Theresa and passed it hundreds of times without realizing its significance as a Cold War flashpoint.
- Producer Brad Feinstein said the film was a "nine year journey" to bring to life through Romulus Entertainment and called Tribeca "a better stage for its world premiere" than any alternative.
Why it matters: The film dramatizes a real 1960 convergence of the CIA, FBI, Mafia, Malcolm X, and Castro at Harlem's Hotel Theresa — a Cold War episode director Eif Rivera says was "largely unknown." A Tribeca world premiere with Pacino leading gives that obscure moment its first major dramatization, and producer Brad Feinstein's nine-year development track signals a long-gestating prestige push rather than a quick capital play.
