Will Ferrell Spanish-language comedy 'Casa de mi Padre' gets picked up for U.S. release

Will Ferrell blows a kiss to the crowd at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last month. The actor was there to accept the 14th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Credit: AP Photo/Kevin Wolf

The Spanish-language Will Ferrell comedy "Casa de mi Padre" will be hitting Stateside theaters next year thanks to Pantelion Films, which has just acquired the film for U.S. distribution. Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal and Nick Offerman ("Parks and Recreation") also star.

"Padre" centers on Armando Alvarez (Ferrell), a Mexican rancher whose younger brother Raul (Diego Luna) returns home with his new fiancee Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez) and bucketloads of cash - enough to pay off their father's crippling debts. Unfortunately, the shady business dealings from which Raul earned his riches lead to trouble in the form of a local drug lord named Onza (Gael Garcia Bernal), and the brothers are subsequently forced into engaging in an all-out war with the feared tyrant.

The comedy, which was fully financed by NALA Films ("In the Valley of Elah"), pays homage to classic westerns and telenovelas.

“Will, Andrew and I are excited to have Pantelion distribute the movie — especially since our collective knowledge of the Spanish language amounts to what we learned during a half-hour Learning Annex class taken the night before production of the film began,” said director Matt Piedmont, who previously wrote and helmed several "Funny or Die Presents..." shorts for Ferrell. “We loved collaborating with NALA to make this movie and now can’t wait to have it released. Pantelion and NALA are the perfect team to get it out there.”

The film was penned by former "SNL" writer Andrew Steele, who has also written several "Funny or Die Presents..." episodes. The scribe also wrote an original theme song for the film with collaborator Patrick Perez that is performed by pop singer/"The Voice" judge Christina Aguilera.

Pantelion has slated the film for U.S. release on March 16, 2012. The company previously distributed Luna's directorial debut "Abel" as well as  "From Prada to Nada" starring Camilla Belle and Alexa Vega, both released earlier this year.

Ferrell will next be seen in the Funny or Die-produced "Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie", which is scheduled to come out sometime in 2012.

Chris Eggertsen
Producer

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A former contributor to sites including Bloody-Disgusting and AfterElton, Eggertsen enjoys rock music, rainy days and smelling the pages of old books. You should read all of his articles and follow him on Twitter because it's the right thing to do.