JUAN RENDON

Screenwriter/Film Producer

Juan Rendón is one of the founding partners of Paraíso Pictures, a film production company aimed at creating content for the US Hispanic and Latin American markets.

Rendón wrote and produced, Paraiso Travel, which was distributed in Colombia in January 2008 to critical acclaim and great box office success. The film premiered in the U.S at the Tribeca Film Festival, and won the Best Picture and the Audience Award in the Los Angeles Latino Film Festival. The film will be released theatrically in 2009. The script for the film, written by Rendón and acclaimed Colombian novelist Jorge Franco, was awarded the National Production Grant from the Colombian Ministery of Culture in 2006. Rendón´s latest completed project is a documentary he produced and wrote about the rescue by the Colombian military forces of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages who were being held by the FARC guerilla army.

Rendón is now at work in a script about the life of Pablo Escobar, Colombia¹s most infamous drug lord. The project has recently signed John Leguizamo to star in the role of Escobar. Before working in film, Rendon worked as a journalist for five years, three of which he directed LOFT magazine, an influential men¹s lifestyle magazine for the US Hispanic and Latin American markets. Rendón was born in Cali, Colombia and received his Bachelor¹s Degree in Economics and Visual Arts from Duke University, in North Carolina.