Mary Aloe – Proud Mary Entertainment

LOS ANGELES—After a global search, Aloe Entertainment and director James Foley have found “Joseph”. With over 900 established and unknown actors vying for the coveted role, Diogo Morgado has been cast as Joseph in “Mary, Mother of the Christ”.  He joins an all-star cast including Camilla Belle (“10,000 B.C.” and “Push”) as Mary, Academy Award winner Al Pacino (“The Godfather” and “Scarface”) as King Herod, Golden Globe winner Peter O’Toole (“Lawrence of Arabia” and “Venus”) as Symeon and Julia Ormond (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Legends of the Fall”) as Elizabeth.
The film’s award winning director James Foley (“Confidence”, “Glengarry Glen Ross” and “Perfect Stranger”) says of Morgado “We saw a huge amount of young actors and a couple were great. We thought we finished our search when a tape appeared with this incredible guy.  A major future star walked in the room and I met him, read him and knew we had found THE one.”
Though unknown for the most part to U.S. audiences, Morgado is one of the most recognizable actors in Portugal.  Now in his 20’s, since his first professional screen engagement 15 years ago, Morgado has constantly been working in Film and television. This year, Morgado appears in critically praised performances in “Star Crossed—Amor em Jogo” and “A Vida Privada de Salazar”, playing the title character Oliveira Salazar, the Prime Minister and dictator of Portugal who was highly influential in shaping modern Portugal.  “Mary, Mother of The Christ” is Morgado’s first crossover to a U.S. production.
From the writer and technical advisor of “The Passion of the Christ”, this is an action drama, youth oriented, faith based biopic that chronicles the epic journey of a young Mary and Joseph, their escape from the tyranny of King Herod’s reign and their preparation of young Jesus for his destiny.
“Mary, Mother of the Christ” is produced by Mary Aloe through Aloe Entertainment (“Battle In Seattle”,  “Tortured”, “When a Man Falls in the Forrest” and “While She was Out”) with producing partner Dune Films (“Babel”, “Hidalgo” and “Prince of Persia”).Mauricio Sanchez, Mike Dolan and James Volk are executive producers and Tim Van Rellim is the line producer. Casting was coordinated by Carla Hool (“Apocalypto”, “Man on Fire” and “Quantum of Solace”). Currently in pre-production, the film is scheduled to begin principal photography in the first week of October 2009.  The film will be domestically distributed by the studio  with an anticipated 2010 release in a guaranteed minimum of 2,000 theaters.   Morgado is represented in the U.S. by Adam Park of The Park Noack Agency.

Mary Aloe, producer and film finance expert, is considered one of Los Angeles most prolific female producers. She formed Aloe Entertainment and “Proud Mary Entertainment Inc” an L.A. based Feature Film/Television Production and Talent Management Company, in 1999. Aloe Entertainment the umbrella company for PME’s main two divisions are producing and financing slates of movies and running a 50 million dollar P & A Fund for backed by Merrill Lynch for “Regent Entertainment”.

The company specializes in developing and producing independent and studio features, television series, network and cable event movies. Mary Aloe, Aloe Entertainment and PME specialize in obtaining 100% financing for features by raising private equity, working with hedge funds, gap financing, top tier of foreign sales companies and securing domestic distribution.

2009 is going to be another banner year for Mary Aloe and her staff at “Proud Mary Entertainment Inc”. The company has been enjoying a run with a record slate of eight features, completed in just last the two years; all to be released in 2008 and 2009. Given this ambitious pace of production, the company is garnering a reputation as a mini-studio. Aloe and her partner Mike Dolan owner of “Smithfield Street Studios” are lining up their first slate of recently announced 6 pictures of their 12 picture alliance in Pittsburgh. The partners first major studio film with MGM Studios is “Mary, Mother of the Christ”, the prequel to “The Passion of the Christ”, will be starring Camilla Belle, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and Peter O’Toole. Aloe and Dolan own and will produce the script written by Benedict Fitzgerald and Barbara Nicolosi the writer of “The Passion of Christ” and they are hiring many of the original crew from the movie. The film will be shot in Morocco in April 2009 for a Good Friday, April 2010 release. The partners are in post-production now on “Hollywood and Wine” starring David Spade, Chris Kattan, Vivica Fox and Chaz Palaminteri. Aloe is also in post on the film “The Ascent” starring Josie Davis. “The Ascent” is a mountain climbing thriller, which was shot in Austin, Texas and Los Angeles with Aloe’s Texas partner, David Cuddy, owner of the Ranch Studios.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Jay Willick