Hollywood star Andy Garcia premiered his latest directorial effort, Diamond, at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday night. The film, described as a love letter to Los Angeles and the film noir genre, is a quirky whodunnit that Garcia both wrote and directed.
A Long-Awaited Project
Garcia, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in The Godfather Part III, plays Joe Diamond, an old-school private detective with an uncanny knack for solving baffling cases that leave the LAPD perplexed. Speaking to the Mirror and other press on Wednesday, the 70-year-old revealed that the film was two decades in the making.
The idea first came to him while helping his young daughter, Daniella, with her homework — a task to write a short story in the style of crime writer Raymond Chandler. "I started to pitch an idea about doing a series to HBO and other networks. They all said it's very interesting, but it wasn't written, so I just challenged myself and started writing," Garcia explained. "I had 60 pages for a television pilot, but nobody bought it."
Independent Financing
Despite the initial setbacks, Garcia persevered. "15 years went by trying to sell it. No one ever supported the film. I was never able to sell it traditionally to a studio or streamer," he said. "We financed it completely independently and then sent it to Thierry and said we hope you like it. And then we got a call back. They said we love your movie and we'd like to have you here."
Stellar Cast
Diamond boasts an impressive ensemble cast, including Rosemarie DeWitt, Brendan Fraser, Bill Murray, Dustin Hoffman, and Danny Huston. This marks Garcia's third film as a director, following the 1993 documentary Cachao… Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos and 2005's The Lost City. Garcia shares four children with his wife Marivi, a film producer of over 40 years.
Future Projects
Garcia also revealed other projects in development, including Hemingway & Fuentes, about the friendship between writer Ernest Hemingway and Cuban boat captain Gregorio Fuentes, which inspired The Old Man and the Sea. Garcia noted, "I would play Fuentes."
The actor's return to Cannes marks his first appearance at the festival since 2007 for Ocean's Thirteen, and prior to that, 1995's Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead.
