EXCLUSIVE: Johnny Canales, the famed Tejano singer and Mexican American TV host who handed away on June 13, is the topic of Take It Away, a brand new function doc from Adrian Arredondo and Myrna Perez that has entered manufacturing.
In a second when Latino music and artists like Peso Pluma, Grupo Frontera, and Unhealthy Bunny are dominating the charts, the movie explores the origins of Latin music’s rise via The Johnny Canales Present — an area the place, starting within the Nineteen Eighties, each Latino in America felt seen, free to be unapologetically themselves, and half of a bigger motion.
Ushering within the golden age of Tejano music and the “Decade of the Hispanic,” Canales and his TV present turned a microcosm of the Latino expertise in America.
The movie shall be exec produced by Texas Monthly and Trojan Horse Productions, in addition to Arredondo and Perez. CAA Media Finance reps worldwide distribution rights.
Defined Arredondo and Perez in a joint assertion to Deadline, “This can be a bilingual story of the American Dream. Take It Away is an unbelievable look into migrant communities and the sweetness they’ve created over many years in America. The Rio Grande Valley has a lot pleasure to share with the world, and we’re proud Johnny Canales paved the way in which for us to take action with our music, which in the present day is as soon as once more on the high of the charts.”
Texas Month-to-month President Scott Brown remarked that “that is a world story that orbits round a trailblazing Texan, and Texas Month-to-month is thrilled to accomplice with Myna, Adrian, and Trojan Horse to carry it to a large viewers.”
Shared Texas Month-to-month government producer Megan Creydt, “We have been instantly struck by Myrna and Adrian’s imaginative and prescient and entry to the world of Johnny Canales and the Tejano motion. That is an simple story that doesn’t simply shine a lightweight on the previous however offers us better appreciation for the second we’re in in the present day.”
Trojan Horse’s Alex Fumero and Kareem Tabsch added, “At Trojan Horse, we’re all the time drawn to tales and characters which are larger-than-life, daring, and unapologetically themselves. Johnny Canales was all that and extra. All through his life and profession, he devoted himself to championing Tejano music and tradition, and in doing so helped generations of parents see themselves mirrored on display and within the music.”
The duo went on to say that they’re “proud to be collaborating with and supporting the artistic imaginative and prescient of Adrian and Myrna as they have fun the story of this Mexican-American icon; the story of a proud Texan and the individuals who his life’s work all the time held up.”
Initially connecting with the Canales household whereas exec producing Netflix’s Selena: the Sequence marketing campaign, Perez is an Emmy-nominated producer devoted to championing various narratives. Beforehand, she’s produced two seasons of Style the Nation with Padma Lakshmi for Hulu, A Nice Day with J Balvin, and Season 2 of Leguizamo Does America for Peacock, amongst different initiatives.
A critically acclaimed filmmaker who tells tales of immigration, discovery, and cultural integration via music, Arredondo was beforehand a senior artistic producer at Spotify, the place he led growth of bilingual movies and podcasts for Spotify Studios. He’s additionally the chief producer of LOUD: The Historical past of Reggaeton, a chart-topping narrative podcast hosted by Ivy Queen, and the founding artistic director of Lantinx media firm BESE.
Chronicling life within the Lone Star state since 1973, Texas Month-to-month has in recent times established a footprint in tv, movie, and podcasts, with a first-look deal for scripted tv with HBO and Max. Most just lately, they’ve government produced Richard Linklater’s acclaimed Netflix pic Hit Man and the Max restricted collection Love & Dying, each based mostly on Texas Month-to-month storytelling. Texas Month-to-month has dozens of initiatives in growth for movie and TV, together with Taylor Sheridan’s upcoming Land Man collection, based mostly on their podcast Boomtown.
Based mostly in Los Angeles and Miami, Trojan Horse was based in 2022 on the heels of Fumero and Tabsch’s success with the Emmy-nominated Netflix documentary Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado.
Texas Month-to-month is represented by CAA.
