A serious horror drama in 'T2'

PLUS: ‘Scorpio Nights’ to debut on stage; Richard Gomez shares 11th wedding anniversary plans 

Horror flick fans are in for a good treat when “T2” opens on Black Saturday. A Star Cinema presentation, “T2” is a horror film directed by Chito Roño and starring Diamond Star Maricel Soriano.

Star Cinema takes pride in presenting “T2” for which the producers are certain horror flick fans will remember for a long, long time. Direk Roño shared, “T2 is a serious horror drama about encounters between man and engkanto. Usually pag sinasabi nating engkanto sa mga pelikula kalimitan for almost every movie that I’ve seen is very fantasy-oriented. For the first time, Star Cinema brings to the Filipino audience ‘yung actual naming na-research based sa mga interviews, based sa mga nagkaroon ng claims ng engkwentro or experience. Ito yung exciting sa ‘T2’ kasi first time ipapakita kung paano ba sila sa totoong buhay at hindi sa fantasy world.”

Maricel, on the other hand, shares about her role in “T2” and her reunion with Direk Chito. She said “I play the character Claire. Claire is an ordinary person, she’s a social worker. Nang magtagpo sila ng batang si Angeli (played by Mica dela Cruz), dun mag-start ang relationship naming dalawa, na dun ipapakita yung supposed to be magkaibang mundo namin. Pero yung tinatawag natin na nagiging isa tayo pagdating sa pagmamahal. Makikita natin sa pelikula yung realidad ng mundo natin, bilang mga tao at mundo ng mga engkanto.”

Both Direk Chito and Maricel only have good words for young Mica, who passed the audition with flying colors. Direk Chito said he was getting frustrated already after they auditioned hundreds of aspirants and he still couldn’t find what he wanted in any of them. But when Mica came along and auditioned, Direk Chito told himself, “Sabi ko, ito na siya. And I didn’t err, hindi ako nagkamali sa pagpili ko kay Mica. Ang galing-galing niya.” Maricel said the same thing about the child actress.

Mica related her experience at the presscon for the movie held at Dolphy Theater (formerly Studio 1) at ABS-CBN. “Masaya po ako na magkaroon ng movie at kasama pa si Direk Chito saka si Ms. Maricel. Masaya po talaga ako ng nakuha ko yung opportunity na makasama sila sa isang napakagandang movie gaya ng ‘T2.’ Sabi ko sa sarili ko, gagalingan ko para matuwa sila, at matuwa rin mga parents ko.” Mica is only 10 years old.

 “T2” also stars Derek Ramsay, Eric Fructuoso, Mosang, Camille Prats, Mon Confiado, K Brosas, Tetchie Agbayani, with the special participation of John Lloyd Cruz and Carmen Soo, a new Kapamilya star.

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“Scorpio Nights,” one of the most popular films directed by Peque Gallaga, will soon debut on the legitimate stage. The version will be directed by Soxie Topacio. The original “Scorpio Nights” starred Anna Marie Gutierrez, Orestes Ojeda and Daniel Fernando and was produced by Regal Films.

It spawned a second version titled “Scorpio Nights 2” which was the launching flick of Joyce Jimenez, who starred opposite Albert Martinez.

Now, comes the legitimate version of “Scorpio Nights” and Direk Peque Gallaga couldn’t be happier.

“I believe it’s a great idea so I readily said yes when Soxie told me about their plan. It’s up to Soxie as to what he wants to do with the stage version of Scorpio Nights. He after all knows what he’s doing. I am so happy nga that somebody wanted to use it,” declared Direk Peque at the presscon of Sine Direk, a joint project of APT Entertainment and Director’s Guild of the Philippines (DGPI).

It’s obvious that Direk Peque considers “Scorpio Nights” as one of his more important projects. He revealed there was a time when he got pissed off with a certain major production outfit who wanted to do “Scorpio Nights” without asking his permission. The production outfit even held a presscon to announce that they are doing a new film version of this groundbreaking film.

“I called their attention. Ano, bastusan na ba ito? They denied it. For example, Shake, Rattle and Roll, even we were the first to direct it, that was a project conceptualized by Douglas Quijano so I am giving him credit for that. It was his idea,” said Direk Peque.

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We had an interview with Richard Gomez at the taping of “All About Eve” last week. We just came from the press conference of APT Entertainment and Director’s Guild of the Philippines for their joint project titled “Sine Direk” which features six films by noted directors Joel Lamangan, Soxie Topacio, Mel Chionglo, Peque Gallaga, Maryo de los Reyes and Lore Reyes.

Richard was listed in the cast of “Bente,” to be directed by Mel Chionglo, which also stars Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, Iza Calzado, Ricky Davao, Aldred Gatchalian, Jewel Mische, Ryan Eigenmann and Lani Mercado.

While he’s very much interested to do the film (Goma said he liked the story), he fears he might just have to give it up. Filming for “Bente” is supposed to start on April 16 but Goma rues he could no longer accommodate it in his schedule since the original schedule he gave the production staff was for months of January and February. But filming didn’t materialize after Marky Cielo died early December (he was supposed to play one of the important roles) and direk Mel got depressed after Marky died. Besides, the production team had to look for a good replacement for the late Starstruck alumnus.

Richard and Lucy are scheduled to go to the United States for a vacation and to celebrate their 11th wedding anniversary. This has long been planned and they couldn’t move the date. It runs smack into the schedule that the production team of “Bente” is requesting Goma to give them.

He is hopeful though that he might still be able to do the film when he comes back early May. But with a May 27 playdate, Goma thinks it might be impossible for the production team to delay the filming a little bit more and wait for his return.