Mexico's three amigos of film backing new project

The first film to be backed by the production company created by the three amigos of Mexican film — Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Alfonso Cuaron and Guillermo del Toro — is being shot.

Rudo y Cursi, a comedy translated as Rough and Corny, will reunite the two lead actors of Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Tambien, the Oscar-nominated movie that thrusthim into the spotlight.

The new project, to be directed by Cuaron's brother Carlos, who was scriptwriter on Y Tu Mama Tambien, stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna assoccer-playing brothers locked in life-long rivalry.

"It's the family reunited to work together," said Alfonso Cuaron, who is co-producing the movie with Inarritu, director of Oscar-winning Babel.

Inarritu, Cuaron, director of Children of Men, and de Toro, director of Pan's Labyrinth —referred to as the three amigos for their role in bringing Mexican cinema into the international spotlight —have been friends since before their rise to fame.

Together they have racked up 16 Academy Award nominations.

Earlier this year, they made a $100-million deal with Universal Studios to produce five films. Rudo y Cursi is the first film in the package.

Filming started three weeks ago in the small coastal town of Cihuatlan, close to a banana plantation owned by the Cuaron family that the brothers visited as children.

The film is expected to have some of the same elements that made 2001's Y Tu Mama Tambien successful.

"Gael and Diego are once again exploring the same themes of rivalry," said Inarritu.

It is the first time the two actors have played opposite each other since 2001.

Cast and crew clearly enjoyed being reunited, playing a charity soccer match against a local team during the shoot, according to a report from Reuters.