The new pic tells the story of two fraternal twin brothers, Pedro and Diego Hernandez, both raised in the toughest barrio of East L.A. Pedro is 10 years old, and a Vato Loco in the making, while his brother Diego follows his brother’s stylistic lead and influence but is, at the same time, his diametric opposite in both bearing and character: Pedro is the dark to Diego’s light, but as young chavalitos on the mean streets of Boyle Heights, they’ve survived by watching one another’s backs.
The film marks a third entry for WarParty’s growing resume as it advances Carnahan’s filmic reset of 2011 Indonesian crime thriller, The Raid with XYZ Films, and readies the October release of Jeremy Rush’s new Netflix thriller, Wheelman starring actor Frank Grillo who launched WarParty with Carnahan more than a year ago. Both will be part of a three-to-five film production raft for WarParty to produce including some with franchise potential.
“We are excited to have ‘El Chicano’ be our second film under the War Party banner and first under our newly formed WarChest Film Fund with our partners in Calgary,” says Frank.
“‘El Chicano’ continues a tradition/trend that Frank and I are pursuing. War Party is looking to produce high-quality, intelligently executed action-thrillers, with an essential emotional core. We’re trying to do a global, Marvel-style film for a fraction of the price and cater to the Hispanic community, who statistically represents the most under-serviced, largest theater-going populace in North America,” adds Carnahan.