‘Porto Rico’ Has Finally Started Production and Bad Bunny Is Getting His First Major Film Role in One of the Most Anticipated Latin Projects in Years

René Pérez, known globally as Residente, began filming his first feature film “Porto Rico” on Monday, and the cast list alone makes this one of the most anticipated Latin projects in recent cinema history. Bad Bunny leads the film in his first major starring role, joined by Viggo Mortensen, Edward Norton and Javier Bardem, with additional cast members still to be announced. Residente announced the start of production through an Instagram story showing the clapperboard from the first scene, shot under his direction alongside Oscar-winning cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, whose previous credits include Slumdog Millionaire and Snowden.

The film is a Caribbean western inspired by real events that explores the colonial history of Puerto Rico with what Residente has described as visual intensity and uncompromising honesty. He co-wrote the screenplay with Alexander Dinelaris, the Oscar-winning writer behind Birdman, and has said he has dreamed of making a film about his country since he was a child, describing Puerto Rico’s true history as one that has always been surrounded by controversy.

Why the Film Is Being Made in the Dominican Republic

“Porto Rico” is a film about Puerto Rico being shot primarily in the Dominican Republic, and the reasons behind that decision are worth understanding. The production relocated due to a combination of infrastructure needs, the availability of large locations including sugarcane fields that are central to the visual language of the film, and limitations related to tax credits and fiscal incentives available in Puerto Rico for the current fiscal year. The controversy between the production team and the Puerto Rican government over those incentives was significant enough to redirect the entire operation across the Caribbean, a decision that Residente made public rather than letting it pass without comment.

The tension between a filmmaker making a deeply personal film about his homeland and being unable to shoot it there due to institutional failures is not a small irony, and Residente’s decision to be transparent about it suggests he views the circumstances of production as part of the larger story the film is trying to tell about Puerto Rico’s relationship with the systems that govern it.

The Cast and Creative Team Behind the Film

Bad Bunny’s involvement in “Porto Rico” as the lead is a milestone in his evolving career as an actor. He has appeared in Bullet Train and Caught Stealing in supporting roles, but “Porto Rico” represents his first time carrying a film as the central protagonist, and doing so in a project directed by Residente, his fellow Puerto Rican artist and one of the most decorated musicians in Latin Grammy history with 34 awards, gives the collaboration a cultural resonance that goes well past a typical casting announcement.

The supporting cast assembles three of the most respected actors working in international cinema. Mortensen, known for Eastern Promises, Captain Fantastic and Green Book, brings a career built on physically and emotionally demanding roles. Norton, whose credits include American History X, Birdman and A Complete Unknown, described Residente at the time of the film’s announcement as a poet of language who would now reveal himself as a visual visionary, saying that bringing him together with Bad Bunny to tell the true story of Puerto Rico’s roots would be like a flame finding the cartridge of dynamite that was waiting for it. Bardem, the Spanish Oscar winner behind No Country for Old Men, completes a cast that would be remarkable for any film regardless of its subject matter.

The Production Structure and What It Represents

“Porto Rico” is produced by Residente and Erick Douât through 1868 Studios, a company created through a multi-year strategic alliance between Residente, Sony Music Latin-Iberia and Sony Music Vision, explicitly committed to elevating Latin culture and bringing Latin stories to global audiences. Norton and Bill Migliore, alongside Michael Bederman, produce for Class 5 Films. The executive producer lineup includes Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the multiple Oscar-winning Mexican director, alongside Scott Budnick, Mike Novogratz, Sukey Novogratz, José E. Feliciano, Kwanza Jones, Henry R. Muñoz III and Noah Assad. UTA Independent Film Group handles international sales.

Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony until 1898, when it passed to the United States following the Spanish-American War and became the Commonwealth it remains today, a political status that has generated debate about sovereignty, identity and self-determination for over a century. A Caribbean western that takes that history as its subject, told by Puerto Rican artists with the resources and creative talent assembled behind “Porto Rico,” is a project the island has been waiting for in one form or another for a very long time.