Puerto Rico’s history has never exactly lacked drama, but René Pérez Joglar is coming at it with the language of big, swaggering cinema: a historical drama pitched as an epic Caribbean western, built around the island’s origins and the violence, mythmaking, and power grabs that shaped them. The film is titled “Porto Rico,” and it marks Bad Bunny’s first leading film role, with Edward Norton, Javier Bardem, and Viggo Mortensen also set to star.
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The project positions Pérez Joglar—better known as Residente, the Grammy and Latin Grammy-winning Puerto Rican rapper and activist—as a first-time feature director telling a story he has described as a lifelong ambition. The rapper/filmmaker also recently stepped in front of the camera for his acting debut in the Sundance-awarded drama “In the Summers.” In a statement, he framed the film as a direct confrontation with a contested past: “I have dreamed of making a film about my country since I was a child. Puerto Rico’s true history has always been surrounded by controversy. This film is a reaffirmation of who we are—told with the intensity and honesty that our history deserves.”
“Porto Rico” is described as an epic Caribbean western and historical drama inspired by true events, with Pérez Joglar co-writing the script alongside Oscar-winning screenwriter Alexander Dinelaris (“Birdman”). The movie is backed by Live Nation Studios, with Pérez Joglar and Erick Douât producing through 1868 Studios, and Norton producing via Class 5 Films alongside Bill Migliore and Michael Bederman.
In addition to the producing architecture, the film’s support system includes Alejandro G. Iñárritu as an executive producer. And while this is Pérez Joglar’s feature debut, the framing here is ambitious, suggesting he’s aiming for something muscular and cinematic rather than a prestige history lesson—genre as a delivery system for national memory.
Norton, who is also producing, put it in the language of big American crime sagas—stories that entertain while forcing a reckoning with what’s been buried. “This film sits in a tradition of films we deeply love, from ‘The Godfather’ to ‘Gangs of New York,’ that both thrill us with visceral drama and iconic characters and eras while also forcing us to face up to the shadow story under the American narrative of idealism,” he said, adding, “Everybody knows what a poet of language and rhythm René is. Now they’re going to see what a visual visionary he is as well. And bringing him and Bad Bunny together to tell the true story of Puerto Rico’s roots is going to be like a flame finding the stick of dynamite that’s been waiting for it.”
Details on schedule and release timing haven’t been announced, but for Bad Bunny, it’s a scale shift. He’s done supporting work on screen—David Leitch’s action romp “Bullet Train,” a pop-up appearance in “Fast X,” and co-starring opposite Gael García Bernal in “Cassandro,” and Adam Sandler in “Happy Gilmore 2”— but this is designed as a star-forward vehicle. It pairs him with legacy actors and a filmmaker making a statement about identity, memory, and nationhood.
