Dennis Padilla debuts as director

Dennis Padilla feels his daughter Julia Barretto and her screen partner Joshua Garcia are now an item. Call it father’s intuition, if there is such a thing, but aside from the body language that tend to give them away, Dennis believes Julia will not have the courage to introduce Joshua to him if there’s nothing going on between them.

“I don’t think they will put pictures of them holding hands or with arms wrapped around each other if there’s nothing going on,” added Dennis at the press conference of “The Barker” which is his directorial debut.

While she has yet to confirm to him the real status of her involvement with Joshua, Dennis has a hunch that romance is brewing.

“I have nothing against Joshua. He is mabait, a loving son and I feel he is serious in courting Julia,” he said.

One time, Dennis recalled, Joshua called him to ask his whereabouts. Then he sent somebody to bring Dennis a bottle of wine. “Aba, sabi ko sa sarili ko, marunong ang batang ito. Alam niya kung paano palalambutin ang puso’t damdamin ng mga magulang ng kanyang minamahal.”

Of the movie “The Barker,” he is proud of his directorial assignment. He not only wrote the script but he was also involved in all aspects of production like editing and musical scoring, among others.

Dennis believes he has done a good job in this movie that stars Empoy Marquez (fresh from the success of “Kita Kita”) and Shy Carlos. With the film’s trailer getting more than 3.5 million views, Dennis is confident that he has a winner in this movie.

“Kahit kalahati man lang nung 3.5 million na nanood ng trailer namin ay manonood, aba malaki-laki na rin ang pwedeng kitain ng pelikula,” the comedian-turned-director said.

“Sa dinarami ng mga director na nakatrabaho ko bilang actor, kahit paano ay may alam na rin ako sa pagdidirek so sa tingin ko, kaya ko na,” said the sidekick of Robin Padilla in “Maging Sino Ka Man” and many other films.

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Box-office director Cathy Garcia-Molina revealed she had promised herself that she will never work with Dingdong Dantes in a movie. At the presscon of Star Cinema’s “Seven Sundays,” Direk Cathy said she had seen Dingdong in a film and she was not impressed. That’s why she vowed never to work with him.

But that impression changed after doing “Seven Sundays” with the Kapuso Primetime King. “We all know how good Ronaldo Valdez and Aga Muhlach are, but Dingdong managed to hold his own with them. I had my doubts, but Dong proved me wrong,” said Direk Cathy.

“Seven Sundays” – which also stars Enrique Gil, Cristine Reyes, Donita Rose and Kean Cipriano – opens today in cinemas nationwide. This is a family drama that will surely touch everyone, both parents and children.

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“Spirit of the Glass,” the blockbuster supernatural-thriller that took the country by storm during the 2004 Metro Manila Film Festival, is back with a sequel billed “Spirit of the Glass 2: The Haunted” and will be shown beginning Nov. 1, a most auspicious playdate for those who love this kind of genre.

Much like the first installment, the Jose Javier Reyes-helmed production boasts of seamless storytelling delivered in a heart-in-your-throat kind of excitement with a brand new cast of characters headlined by Cristine Reyes, Daniel Matsunaga, Enrico Cuenca, Benjamin Alves, Janine Gutierrez, Dominic Roque, Aaron Villaflor, Ashley Ortega and introducing Bb. Pilipinas-Universe 2016 Maxine Medina.

Direk Joey says, “The sequel is totally independent from the original story. However, it also employs the same tropes of the first ‘Spirit..’  that is, the discovery of an ouija board and the carelessness of opening the gateway of the ‘other world’ into the domain of the living. The characters are different but there are echoes of the original in terms of story structure.”

The movie tells the story of three friends – Bea (Cristine), a lifestyle editor; Lisette (Ashley), an up and coming young actress; and Chelsea (Maxine), a popular model for mainstream and viral advertising – who gained popularity through social media and thus were known as the Instaglams. They are all young, beautiful and successful, completely unaware that they would be ensnared in the complicated world of the supernatural because of an Ouija board that Bea inherited from her grandaunt.

Together with their boyfriends, the three girls unwittingly open the gates of the other world for three spirits to connect with them when they decided to play with the Ouija Board allowing disturbed souls to seek justice for a crime committed 50 years ago.  And then, the haunting began.

“Spirit of the Glass 2:The Haunted” is brought to us by OctoArts Films in association with T-Rex Entertainment.