Puerto Rico’s native son, René Pérez Joglar, better known as Residente to his legions of fans, has dominated the music industry for decades — and now he’s looking to disrupt Hollywood.

Residente, a four-time Grammy and 29-time Latin Grammy Award winner , is gearing up to make his feature film directorial debut with Porto Rico , an epic Caribbean Western and historical drama led by Benito “ Bad Bunny ” Martínez Ocasio in his first role as a leading man. Rounding out the principal cast are Hollywood heavyweights Viggo Mortensen, Edward Norton and Javier Bardem. The project also heralds Residente’s debut as a screenwriter, sharing the credit with Oscar-winning writer and fellow Boricua , Alexander Dinelaris ( Birdman ).

Tackling a major project like this would cause anyone to second-guess themselves, but not Residente. He’s had mentors and friends, both new and old, who helped him along the way, like Alejandro G. Iñárritu , who serves as executive producer of Porto Rico .…