Will Coco Martin recoup ‘Ang Panday’ P100M production budget?

PLUS: ‘Ang Larawan’ gets ‘A’ rating from CEB too

Martin faced the biggest challenge of his career when he decided to direct the newest version of iconic character “Panday,” popularized by Fernando Poe Jr., the King of Philippine movies.

The movie is a joint venture of Star Cinema, Viva Films and Coco’s CCM Productions, and is one of the muchawaited entries in this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival.

directing. His previous experience is only as creative consultant for the toprating series “FPJ’s Ang Probinsiyano.”

Judging by the trailer of Ang Panday posted on social media, Coco seems to have made a fairly decent and impressive movie. For one, Coco certainly made an effort to create a good story for Flavio— the main character which was created by Carlo Caparas and was immortalized onscreen by FPJ, then Bong Revilla, and Richard Gutierrez .

As an actor and a debuting director, he believes that a good story is the best framework of a good movie. Coco made sure to be on top of the Panday project—from conceptualization to the development of the story to ensure that it will appeal to people of all ages.

“I don’t want the people to say that I scrimped on the budget. I want them to see kungsaannapuntaangpera. Whatever that needs to be spent to make a good movie, I bankrolled it. They will Coco Martin see where the money went when they watch Ang Panday,” said the actordirector when asked of the production cost.

Rumor has it that Coco spent P100 million for ' Ang Panday.' As such, many are predicting that Ang Panday will be the top-grosser in the festival.

Jane Oineza admits feeling nervous that their movie “Haunted Forest” was selected as an entry to the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF).

The horror film directed by Ian Lorenos is up against MMFF giants like Vic Sotto, Vice Ganda, Coco Martin, Jennylyn Mercado, and Derek Ramsay among others.

“Angbibigat ngmgaartistangkasalisa festival. Nariyanyungmga stars na yearly sumasali.Perosiyempre am honored kasikasaliang movie namin. Kumbaga,pumasakami,” said Jane at the recent mediacon for Haunted Forest.

It has been the tradition of Regal Entertainment to join the yearly MMFF and the entry, dating back to the fabled days of “Shake, Rattle & Roll,” which has become a franchise. during the festival and are among the biggest moneymakers. Haunted Forest also stars Raymart Santiago, Jameson Blake, Joey Marquez, Jon Lucas, and Maris Racal.

richly deserves the unanimous A-Rating it got from the Cinema Evaluation Board. We have watched the movie in a special preview last week and we recommend it for everyone’s viewing.

“World class” is one way to describe it. It has topnotch production values – production design, music, cinematography, editing, and the acting was just superb.

The movie boasts of excellent performances from Joanna Ampil, Rachel Alejandro, Paolo Avelino Nonie Buencamino, Menchu Lauchengco, Sandino Martin, Celeste Legaspi to the ensemble cast that included Zsa Zsa Padilla, Dulc, Nanette Inventor, Noel Trinidad, Robert Arevalo, among others.

smoothly, aided by the libretto written by National Artist Rolando Tinio from the play written by Nick Joaquin, another National Artist. And of course, there is that beautiful music composed by Maestro Ryan Cayabyab.

We hope the “masa” will embrace the movie and watch it despite the fact Ang Larawan has no big named star (except probably for Paolo Avelino) who is better known as an actor.

Paolo auditioned for the role and was surprised when he got the part of Tony Javier. It is a big challenge for him to take on the part because he is not a singer. Good thing he didn’t back out of the challenge.