Salma Hayek Pinault is a Mexican and American actress and film producer. She began her career in Mexico with starring roles in the telenovela Teresa (1989–1991) as well as the romantic drama Midaq Alley (1995). She soon established herself in Hollywood with appearances in films such as Desperado (1995), From Dusk till Dawn (1996), Wild Wild West (1999), and Dogma (1999).
Robert Towne is an American screenwriter and director. He started with writing films for Roger Corman including The Tomb of Ligeia (1964). Later, he was a part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking. He wrote the Academy Award-winning original screenplay for Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974), which is widely considered one of the greatest screenplays. Towne also wrote the sequel, The Two Jakes (1990), and the Hal Ashby comedy-dramas The Last Detail (1973) and Shampoo (1975). He has collaborated with Tom Cruise on the films Days of Thunder (1990), The Firm (1993) and the first two installments of Mission: Impossible franchise.
Fools Rush In is a 1997 American romantic comedy film starring Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek, directed by Andy Tennant.
John Fante was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his semi-autobiographical novel Ask the Dust (1939) about the life of Arturo Bandini, a struggling writer in Depression-era Los Angeles. It is widely considered the great Los Angeles novel, and is one in a series of four, published between 1938 and 1985, that are now collectively called "The Bandini Quartet". Ask the Dust was adapted into a 2006 film starring Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek. Fante's published works while he lived included five novels, one novella, and a short story collection. Additional works, including two novels, two novellas, and two short story collections, were published posthumously. His screenwriting credits include, most notably, Full of Life, Jeanne Eagels (1957), and the 1962 films Walk on the Wild Side and The Reluctant Saint.
Frida is a 2002 American biographical drama film directed by Julie Taymor which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
Desperado is a 1995 American neo-Western action film written, produced, and directed by Robert Rodriguez. It is the second part of Rodriguez's Mexico Trilogy. It stars Antonio Banderas as El Mariachi who seeks revenge on the drug lord who killed his lover. The film was screened out of competition at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. Desperado grossed $58 million worldwide. It has been cited as Salma Hayek's breakout role.
Fair Game is a 1995 American action thriller film directed by Andrew Sipes. It stars Cindy Crawford as family law attorney Kate McQuean and William Baldwin as police officer Max Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick ends up on the run to protect McQuean when she is targeted for murder by ex-members of the KGB with interests in a ship owned by a Cuban man who may lose it in a divorce case being pursued by McQuean. Written by Charlie Fletcher, Fair Game is based on Paula Gosling's 1974 novel A Running Duck, which was previously adapted into the 1986 film Cobra.
Timecode is a 2000 American experimental film written and directed by Mike Figgis and featuring a large ensemble cast, including Salma Hayek, Stellan Skarsgård, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Suzy Nakamura, Kyle MacLachlan, Saffron Burrows, Holly Hunter, Julian Sands, Xander Berkeley, Leslie Mann and Mía Maestro.
Ask the Dust is the most popular novel of American author John Fante, first published in 1939 and set during the Great Depression era in Los Angeles. It is one of a series of novels featuring the character Arturo Bandini as Fante's alter ego, a young Italian-American from Colorado struggling to make it as a writer in Los Angeles.
Without Limits is a 1998 American biographical sports film. It is written and directed by Robert Towne and follows the relationship between record-breaking distance runner Steve Prefontaine and his coach Bill Bowerman, who later co-founded Nike, Inc. Billy Crudup plays Prefontaine and Donald Sutherland plays Bowerman. It also stars Monica Potter, Jeremy Sisto, Judith Ivey, Matthew Lillard and William Mapother.
Faster is a 2010 American action-thriller film directed by George Tillman Jr. with Dwayne Johnson and Billy Bob Thornton as a criminal seeking vengeance and the corrupt cop who pursues him, respectively. Tom Berenger, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Carla Gugino also appear. Faster was released on November 24, 2010, it received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $35 million against a production budget of $24 million.
Savages is a 2012 American action thriller film directed by Oliver Stone. It is based on Don Winslow's novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by Shane Salerno, Stone, and Winslow. It stars Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Benicio del Toro, Demián Bichir, Salma Hayek, Emile Hirsch and John Travolta. The film follows two marijuana growers, Chon, an ex-Navy SEAL and Ben, who are best friends, as they confront the Mexican drug cartel in order to free their shared girlfriend kidnapped by them.
Americano is a 2011 French drama film written and directed by Mathieu Demy. Demy also stars alongside Geraldine Chaplin, Salma Hayek and Chiara Mastroianni. Demy's mother, Agnès Varda, who was also a filmmaker, served as a producer on the project. The film received its première at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival on 8 September 2011 and later that month, was also screened at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, where it competed for the Kutxa-New Directors Award. In October it was played at the 55th BFI London Film Festival.
Some Kind of Beautiful is a 2014 American romantic comedy film written by Matthew Newman, directed by Tom Vaughan, and starring Pierce Brosnan, Jessica Alba and Salma Hayek. It was produced by Kevin Frakes and Richard Lewis.
Septembers of Shiraz is a 2015 American drama film directed by Wayne Blair and written by Hanna Weg. It is based on the 2007 novel The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer. The film stars Adrien Brody, Salma Hayek, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Anthony Azizi, Bashar Rahal and Alon Aboutboul. The film was released on June 24, 2016, by Momentum Pictures.
The Prophet is a 2014 animated drama film adapted from Kahlil Gibran's 1923 book of the same name. Produced by Salma Hayek, whose voice is also present, the production consisted of different directors for each of the film's collective essays, with animation director Roger Allers supervising and credited as screenwriter. Segment directors include Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi, Joan C. Gratz, Mohammed Saeed Harib, Tomm Moore, Nina Paley, Bill Plympton, Joann Sfar and Michal Socha.
Everly is a 2014 American action thriller film directed by Joe Lynch and written by Yale Hannon based on a story by Lynch and Hannon. The film stars Salma Hayek as the title character with Akie Kotabe, Jennifer Blanc, Masashi Fujimoto, Togo Igawa, Gabriella Wright, Caroline Chikezie, Laura Cepeda, and Hiroyuki Watanabe in supporting roles.
Beatriz at Dinner is a 2017 drama film directed by Miguel Arteta from a screenplay by Mike White. The film stars Salma Hayek, John Lithgow, Connie Britton, Jay Duplass, Amy Landecker, Chloë Sevigny, and David Warshofsky.
The Roads Not Taken is a 2020 drama film written and directed by Sally Potter. The film stars Javier Bardem, Elle Fanning, Salma Hayek and Laura Linney.
Bliss is a 2021 American drama film written and directed by Mike Cahill. It stars Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek, and follows a middle-aged man (Wilson), recently divorced and estranged, who suffers a psychotic break when he is fired from an unhappy job. Befriended by a homeless woman (Hayek), he gradually falls deeper into what appears to be drug addiction. He struggles to discern reality from fantasy. The viewer is left to question whether he is actually caught up in a layer-upon-layer simulation or whether he is experiencing drug-induced psychosis.
