And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself
And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself is a 2003 television film for HBO in partnership with City Entertainment and starring Antonio Banderas as Pancho Villa, directed by Bruce Beresford, written by Larry Gelbart and produced by Joshua D. Maurer, Mark Gordon, and Larry Gelbart. The cast also included Alan Arkin, Jim Broadbent, Michael McKean, Eion Bailey, and Alexa Davalos.
Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa Antonio Banderas finds himself without adequate funding to finance his war against the militaryrun government. He also finds himself at odds with the Americans because of the Hearst media empires press campaign against him. To counter both of these threats, he sends emissaries to movie producers to convince them to pay to film his progress and the actual battles. Producer D.W. Griffith Colm Feore is immediately interested and convinces Mutual Film Studios boss Harry E. Aitkin to send a film crew. Aitkins nephew Frank Thayer is initially a mere errand boy for the studio, but he makes a good impression with Villa, who demands that Thayer be placed in charge of the project. Thayer and a camera crew team film Villa leading his men to victory in battle. Despite the failure of this initial footage which draws derisive laughter from potential backers Thayer convinces Aitkin to invest even more money in a second attempt, and also convinces Villa to participate in making a more narrative film.Thayer returns to Mexico with a director, actors, producers, cameramen and screen writers, and begin to film Villas previous exploits using a younger actor, future film director Raoul Walsh Kyle Chandler. The filming goes well, although Villa becomes angry that the screenwriters and the director have changed history to make a more dramatic film. However, he agrees to do a cameo appearance as an older version of himself. Meanwhile, Frank begins a romance with actress Teddy Sampson Alexa Davalos whom hes had a crush on since they first met. One night Villa announces that they will attack a Federal held fort at Torreon and win the revolution. The films director and his crew tell Villa that they are not coming with him to film the battle. Villa scares them into going to the battle by having a firing squad shoot over their heads. ........
Source: Wikipedia
