Gregory Nava, director of a planned movie about Tejano singing star Selena, spoke with reporters at a San Antonio press conference last weekend. Nava, who directed ''El Norte'' and ''Mi Familia,'' is offering open casting calls around the country for the roles of Selena as a child and an adult. No casting announcement has been made, but the $20 million film is expected to be shot in Texas and released by the end of the year.

Selena's father, Abraham Quintanilla Jr., is executive producer of the movie. The family did not cooperate with Austin author Joe Nick Patoski, whose book ''Selena -- Como la Flor'' is being published this month and excerpted in the American-Statesman beginning Sunday.

Here are some of the questions and answers from Nava's press conference:

Q: Selena was popular in the Southwest, but how do you reach people who weren't fans or didn't know who she was?

A: What you have here is an incredible story about a family's dream. They were on welfare. They started with nothing. And they built this tremendous success through a lot of hard work and with the whole family working together. That's a beautiful story and a powerful story and one that will appeal to everybody in the country, because everybody wants to know that the American dream is still alive. It's got tremendous universality. (Selena) was well(actress) Mary Steenburgen. Her daughter was a big Selenafan. And this was before Selena was killed.

Q: Will the person who plays Selena be a Texan?

A: Selena was Tejana. The little girls who come from (Texas) have a lot of the qualities Selena...