LOS ANGELES (AP) — Diego Boneta had grown bored with Hollywood’s obsession with narco storylines for Latinos. The actor determined he would supply some new supply materials along with his debut novel, out Thursday, a self-described “murder mystery, sexual thriller” set round a fictional enterprise dynasty.
“As someone who’s from Mexico City, seeing all these stories that are Mexican stories, most of them have been about narcos or border crossing. And that is part of our culture. But that’s only this,” the actor mentioned, gesturing to point it solely makes up a small portion of Mexico. “So why don’t we show the other stuff?”
Boneta, greatest recognized for portraying Latin pop icon Luis Miguel in Netflix’s 2018 biopic collection and co-starring in “Rock of Ages,” is now combating in opposition to these stereotypical portrayals by unveiling his debut novel, “The Undoing of Alejandro Velasco.” The Amazon Crossing ebook is publishing in English and out there in Spanish on digital and audio codecs. It’s also slated for a tv adaptation.
“I feel weird calling myself an author. I feel like I’m a storyteller,” mentioned Boneta, 34, who can be a producer and a musician. “It’s the most personal thing I’ve ever done, so it’s really close to my heart.”
The novel facilities on a mysterious man named Julian Villareal, who units out to resolve the thriller behind his good friend and tennis rival Alejandro’s sudden loss of life however finds himself in a collection of twists and turns because of the Velasco household’s wealth and enterprise ties.
“It’s in the vein of ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ meets ‘Match Point,’ set in San Miguel de Allende, full of plot twists,” Boneta mentioned.
Boneta says he needed to set the novel in San Miguel de Allende to showcase a distinct facet of Mexico to mainstream audiences. He grew up visiting household within the historic metropolis and calls it the “Florence of Mexico.”
“I really wanted it to feel like it was coming from my heart. So, I had to write about things that I was really passionate about, and San Miguel is one of them,” he mentioned. “It’s truly a magical town.”
Boneta didn’t plan on including writer to his checklist of attributes, till his sister and producing accomplice, Natalia González-Boneta, recommended that they create their very own mental property. Boneta will star as Julian within the Amazon Studios MGM collection adaptation, which is presently in improvement. The actor and his staff developed the novel and the collection in tandem, although they put a pause on the collection throughout the 2023 Hollywood strikes. Boneta says that he crafted the character to problem himself when bringing the story to the display screen.
“I love transformative roles. I love the chameleon aspect of acting,” he mentioned. “That’s what we tried to do with Julian and having the con man not be the introvert, but be like this like bon vivant guy. He’s so worldly and says he has so much money, but is he really who he says he is?”
Julian is a job Boneta dreamed about as a child when he didn’t see himself represented on display screen. He nonetheless remembers rising up and questioning why Batman wasn’t somebody who regarded like his members of the family.
“To me, that’s the most powerful way of creating an exclusive environment,” he mentioned. “If you’re like, ‘Oh, we’re doing the Latin Batman, and he’s gonna have a mariachi, sombrero and a lucha libre mask and maracas.’ I’m like, ‘Dude, I don’t wanna see that.’ I want the real Batman to happen to be a Latin guy. You don’t even have to make a thing out of it.”
