James Franco to play Fidel Castro in Alina Of Cuba

Actor James Franco is set to play the role of Cuban leader Fidel Castro in filmmaker Miguel Bardem's upcoming film Alina of Cuba.

According to Deadline, Mia Maestro has been roped in to play Natalia Revuelta, the Cuban-born socialite with whom Castro had a love affair.

Franco and Maestro join actor Ana Villafane, who is portraying Castro's daughter, Alina Fernandez. Oscar-nominated writer Jose Rivera and Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz have penned the screenplay.

It follows the true-life story of Cuban exile turned social advocate, Fernandez, whose birth was the result of the tryst between Revuelta and Castro. Fernandez came to know that she was Fidel Castro's daughter at the age of 10 when after years of secret visits to her home, her mother finally revealed that El Comandante was her biological father. Alina, who grew to become one of Castro's most outspoken critics, was arrested on more than one occasion for trying to leave and was classified as a dissident forbidden to travel outside of Cuba.

The film is being shot in and around Colombia's Cartagena and Bogota. Actors Alanna de la Rosa, Maria Cecilia Botero, Harding Junior, and Cuban-born actors Sian Chiong and Rafael Ernesto Hernandez round out the cast.