According to Variety, Gael Garcia Bernal and Twilight's Mia Maestro have signed up for Argentine filmmaker Pablo Aguero's so-far unchristened period piece about the aftermath of Eva Peron's death. The project is currently going by the name 'Evita' but should pick up a new title before Antonio Banderas's singing coach gets involved.
Bernal will follow his turn this year's excellent Chilean political drama No with a skip across the border. He's rumoured to be playing naval officer Emilio Eduardo Massera, which, if true, offers a rare bad-guy role and an interesting counterpoint to his anti-fascist turn in No.
Massera was a key member of the Argentinian junta that followed Eva Peron and was responsible for thousands of disappearances and deaths during the 1970s and '80s.
The story will track the fate of Peron's embalmed corpse, unburied for 25 years, against the backdrop of that bloody period in the nation's history. “In this film, I want to show what Evita generated", explains Aguero, "a massive revolt against the injustices of capitalism, followed by a repression that was disproportionate, brutal and yet unsuccessful in shutting her voice forever."
Peron herself will be played by Maestro. She won't appear alive during the span of the film but will be seen "through fragments and shadows". It's an interesting challenge for any actor, even one with **Twilight **on their CV.
Filming should get underway early in 2014.