Originally published by The Austin American-Statesman
This month, bilingual moviegoers will be able to see the same film in both English and Spanish. Austin filmmakers Marla and Julio Quintana, of Colombian and Cuban descent, respectively, will debut their first feature film “The Vessel,” which was shot in both languages.
Julio Quintana, standing to the left of Martin Sheen, wrote and directed “The Vessel,” which stars Sheen as an American priest in a Latin American town.
Terrence Malick is the executive producer, and Martin Sheen stars as an American priest in a Latin American town who trying to console the community after a tsunami destroyed the local school packed with children. The movie used an entirely bilingual cast, including Sheen’s first performance in Spanish.
“You ended up spending another ten, fifteen minutes on each scene,” said Julio, who wrote and directed the movie. “Once you worked out the walking and all the actions, it was just a matter of changing the language.”
Julio said he’s surprised a film of the sort hasn’t been made before, especially considering the huge market for Spanish-speaking moviegoers. There are many bilingual actors with not a lot of opportunities, he said, and it opens up the possibility to double the market for very little money.
Read more of the Austin American-Statesman story here.
