‘I’m deeply saddened by the postponement of the Darna project. However, safety comes first as always. — Jane de Leon’
JANE de Leon says she is sad about ABS-CBN’s decision to shelve their “Darna” project but she adds that she perfectly understands the situation. The ABS-CBN official statement says:
“We are committed to following production guidelines under the new normal and the safety of the actors and production team is a top priority. However, because the movie requires complex logistics, crowd shots, and fight scenes that involve physical contact, it will be difficult to give justice to the superhero film while strictly adhering to the guidelines.”
In addition to the production’s shooting problems, it added that there’s also the fact that with the ongoing corona lockdown, it’s highly doubtful if moviegoers would go back to watching movies in actual theaters.
In reply, Jane wrote in her own social media account: “I’m deeply saddened by the postponement of the Darna project. However, safety comes first as always. Thank you so much for the support & understanding. Let’s pray for everyone’s safety. God bless!”
It’s good that she was being paid a regular salary while under training, so she still earned something. And let’s face it, being chosen as Darna made her more familiar to the public and she can now do projects even for other companies.
Director Jerrold Tarog — who was chosen to replace Erik Matti after he resigned — has revealed that they’ve started shooting the project with Jane in January this year and have already logged 15 shooting days so far, about 40 minutes running time of rough cut. All these footage will now also go into waste. Tarog has now returned to TBA Studios which produced his historical dramas, “Heneral Luna” and “Goyo, Batang Heneral.” He aims to start shooting by next year the third edition in this trilogy of historical films, the biopic of Pres. Manuel Quezon. Let’s hope the scourge of the corona pandemic will really be over by then.
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Dingdong Dantes is excited with the announcement that they will resume taping fresh new episodes of his primetime show, “Descendants of the Sun,” starting on the first week of September. There will be 12 straight days of taping with all the cast and crew locked in one location, to make sure that everyone will be safe from the dreaded virus. How did his wife Marian accept that he will be away from their family working for 12 days?
“She understands and she’s very supportive,” says Dong. “Inihahanda na nga niya lahat ng kakailanganin kong dalhin sa taping. Siempre, we’ll miss each other. Lalo na ako, I will miss our kids Zia and Ziggy kasi matagal ko rin silang hindi magkikita. Pero tiis-tiis muna kasi trabaho ito and we have to make sure we’re all safe.”
Dong and the rest of the cast are also all so proud because their show has just brought honor to GMA Network when it won the Most Popular Foreign Drama of the Year award in the coming 15th Seoul International Drama Awards.
It is the very first Philippine TV program to receive this recognition from the annual global festival. The primetime series was included in the list of winners together with two other foreign dramas, “Snowpiercer” produced by TNT and “The New Pope” produced by Sky Atlantic and HBO.
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Kris Bernal laughs off the rumor that she is now living in with her boyfriend of three years now, Perry Choi, a chef and businessman who’s also her partner in her Korean restaurant.
“We are engaged,” says Kris. “But we’re not living under one roof yet. It’s my choice na hindi muna kami magsama. We’ll do that only after we’ve been officially married. But with this pandemic, ang hirap magplano ng wedding, sa totoo lang.”
She says that when they see each other now, they practice social distancing. “No hugging, no kissing,” she adds. “At naka-face mask at face shield kami. For our own safety. Kung magbatian nga kami, ‘yung lang mga dulo ng daliri namin, our point finger, ang pinagdidikit namin.”
Kris says her businesses were really affected by the pandemic. She had to close down her Korean resto because there were no customers. She has since reopened it but only for take outs. She also her own lipstick line, which also suffered. “Siempre, laging naka-face mask ang mga tao, bakit pa sila magli-lipstick?” she says.
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Director Erik Matti and actress Angeli Bayani are currently nominated in the coming First Content Asia Awards.
This is for their work in the “Food Lore” series of HBO Asia Originals.
Their episode is titled “Island of Dreams” and Angeli plays Nieves, an impoverished young mother who has to make a sacrifice and leaves her husband (Yul Servo) and children in their island to work as a domestic helper for Joey Marquez’s family in the big city. She soon realizes how her being so far away has estranged her relationship with the family she left behind.
“Island of Dreams” originally debuted at the Tokyo International Film Festival in October of last year.
Matti is nominated as best director of a scripted TV program while Angeli is nominated as best actress. They’ll be competing with directors and actors from Thailand, India, Malaysia, Taiwan and Indonesia.
The awards ceremony will be held live streaming this Aug. 28, 6:30 p.m. It will be the culminating activity of the ContentAsia Summit: The Social Distance Edition. The CEO of JKN Global Media is Jakkaphong “Anne” Jakrajutatip, who is reported to be the special someone of Clint Bondad.
