Annapolis is a movie about a kid that dreams of making it to the Naval Academy where each year 50,000 students apply and only 12,000 get accepted. It is also about the boxing team and the stuggles this young boxer has to endure to be the man he didn't know he could be. The film will star Jordana Brewster as the alluringly tough, female commander who helps to train Jake; Donnie Wahlberg as Lt. Cmdr. Burton, the officer who first decides to take a chance on Jake; and Chi McBride as the boxing coach who takes Jake from amateur swinger to focused warrior. Another face will be familiar to some and you will be in the theatre saying, "Where have I seen this kid before?"
Wilmer Calderon will be playing Estrada, a young Latino who was also accepted to the Naval Academy and a boxer. Wilmer Calderon was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico and moved to Brandon, Florida near Tampa at the age of two. He learned to speak Spanish at home from his parents and English from watching "Sesame Street." At the age of five he started playing baseball, a year round sport in Florida, and it quickly became his major preoccupation throughout his school years. In his senior year in high school, he set a single season record for stolen bases. Continuing on to Marshall University, it soon became apparent that there was another discipline that was calling him.
In his spare time, Calderon had appeared in several school plays, and eventually he had to choose between following a career in baseball or giving himself full time to acting. He landed three lines in the Florida-filmed feature "The Walking Dead," earned his Screen Actors Guild card and was off and running. He had a recurring role in the TV series "Second Noah," and appeared in the telefilms "Summer of Fear," and "Love's Deadly Triangle: The Texas Cadet Murder." Among Calderon's other television credits are guest appearances on "Veronica Mars," "The Shield," "CSI: Miami," "24," "NYPD Blue," "ER," and "Profiler." His feature credits include Wes Craven's "Cursed," and the soon to be released "Venice Underground."
Calderon is also active on stage, and has appeared with the Actors Circle Theatre. His mentor has been another native of Santurce, Benicio Del Toro.
It was 1966 in El Paso, Texas and the whole country was facing massive, cultural and philosophical turmoil. And a young basketball coach led the Texas Western Miners (now UTEP Miners) to a NCAA National Basketball Championship and forever changed College basketball. Glory Road tells the story of legendary Don Haskins and his 1966 Miner team.
The film is directed by James Gartner and stars Josh Lucas, Derek Luke and John Voight. It is also the film debut of Alejandro Hernandez, who plays David Palacio, one of the young men on this historic team.
Alejandro Hernandez is a graduate of the University of Texas, El Paso where he now lives, having spent his younger years in Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico. He heard through one of his former UTEP teachers that “Glory Road” was looking for a basketball-playing actor that fit David’s description, but if he wanted to audition for the filmmakers, he would have to make his own way to New Orleans. He scraped together the money and made the trip, reading for director James Gartner who cast Alejandro as “Palacio.” Alejandro has a lot of pride to be the only El Paso based actor in this legendary story of his alma mater, and to have such a role mark his acting debut.
The film will be released on January 13, 2006.
