EXCLUSIVE: Fidel Castro’s daughter, Alina Fernández, has emphasized to Deadline her endorsement of James Franco playing her Cuban leader revolutionary father in the upcoming independent feature, Alina of Cuba.

Fernández will be played in Alina of Cuba by Ana Villafañe.

Deadline told you first that Franco would play Castro, Villafañe as Fernández and Mía Maestro as her mother Natalia “Naty” Revuelta, the Cuban-born socialite who El Comandante has a passionate love affair with.

The movie which is directed by Miguel Bardem and scripted by Oscar-nominated scribe Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries) and Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz, follows the true story of Cuban exile-turned-social advocate Fernandez, whose birth was the result of the tryst between Revuelta and Castro.

“The rest of the cast is going to be a wonderful surprise for all audiences,” continued Fernández who’ll be a biographical and historical consultant on Alina of Cuba!

“To me, the most important thing about this movie is that the conversation about Cuba is alive,” Fernández asserted, “Personally, the experience is so far too unexpected but more than anything, humbling.”!