Brett Harvey to Direct Biopic INMATE #1: THE RISE OF DANNY TREJO
Danny Trejo is one of this generation’s most prolific character actors. He’s our quintessential “face” who’s lent his rugged, intimidating Latino menace to so many of the best exploitation and horror genre movies over the past 25 years as well as some of the best television series to ever grace the small screen, including Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy.
Trejo is also the classic American success story—a man from a truly hard-scrabble background who made mistakes, paid his debts, and turned his life around and then some. As such, who better than him to be the subject of a biopic?
Enter director Brett Harvey, who’s agreed to helm Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo, slated to be released in 2018. To get the scoop in detail, read the full press release below, Horror Fans….
Los Angeles, California – World-renowned actor Danny Trejo has teamed up with award-winning filmmaker Brett Harvey (Ice Guardians, The Culture High) to tell a story 71-years in the making.
Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo, currently in production in California, explores the life and career of Hollywood’s most unlikely hero, Danny Trejo. Trejo, whose myriad of TV and motion picture work includes Desperado, Machete, Sin City, Predators and Sons of Anarchy, executive produces alongside proficient producing team Adam Scorgie, Rocky Mudaliar, Iliana Nikolic and Craig Balkam.
From an early life of drugs, armed robbery and hard prison time, to the red carpets of Hollywood blockbusters all the way to helping troubled addicts; Trejo gives a firsthand account of one of the greatest transformations of human character ever put to film.
“Today, Danny Trejo is temperate, benevolent and likely one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. But he wasn’t always this way”, explains producer Adam Scorgie, whose credits include recent success Ice Guardians and upcoming Chasing Evel: The Robbie Knievel Story. “Growing up in the mean streets of Pacoima, California, he was raised and mentored by his uncle, a drug addict and armed robber. By the age of 12, he had tried heroin. By age 15, he was introduced to his first jail cell. At 23, he was sentenced to San Quentin for selling a $30,000 bag of heroin to an undercover agent. From bad to worse, he boxed his way through the prison jungle, winning fight after fight and learning self-discipline along the way. Surviving some of the most hostile conditions in the country, Danny would eventually find himself involved in a prison riot that would lead to the turning point in his approach to life.”
Upon his release from prison in 1969, Danny’s life took a turn for the better. He started counseling teen drug addicts and working as a boxing coach. One chance meeting led to another and eventually, he found himself on the set of Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky‘s Runaway Train (1985), where he was hired to train the film’s star, Eric Roberts how to box.
During the course of his illustrious acting career, Trejo has worked with such heavyweights as Quentin Tarantino, Antoine Fuqua, Michael Mann, Ivan Reitman and Robert Rodriguez.
Trejo recently completed filming Death Race: Anarchy and western Dead Again in Tombstone, both for Universal Pictures. Shortly, he’s expected to reprise his trademark role of Machete in a second sequel to Robert Rodriguez’s cult classic.
Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo is currently lensing for a release fall 2018.
