‘The Write Moment’ hopes to duplicate success of ‘Kita Kita’
The stars have aligned for Valeen Montenegro and Jerald Napoles.
The two get their big break as lead stars in the movie “The Write Moment” directed by Dominic Lim which opens today in cinemas nationwide.
Valeen said it helped that she and Jerald are working together in GMA-7’s musical-variety show “Sunday PinaSaya” where their chemistry was discovered by accident.
“It was in the show where Jerald and I first met. We did a teleserye within the show. It was there that the audience and the televiewers saw we have chemistry,” said Valeen.
The pairing up of Valeen and Jerald was done to test the waters, so to speak. Their team-up elicited a favorable response from the viewers.
Working together in the said Sunday noontime show proved beneficial when they were cast in “The Write Moment,” a film produced by Jun Lana and Perci Intalan of IdeaFirst Productions, together with Viva Films and CMB Films.
“Jerald and I were very comfortable with each other working on the set,” added Valeen. “There’s no need to adjust because close na kami sa isa’t-isa.”
For his part, Jerald said being at ease working with Valeen helped doing “intimate scenes” easier. “If you are not comfortable with the person you are working with, it will be very hard to do a love scene or a kissing scene. It’s hard to fake it,” said Jerald.
“‘Sunday PinaSaya’ experimented in getting a plainlooking guy to be the love interest of two beautiful women. So thanks to ‘The Write Moment’ because said experiment was brought into the big screen as well,” the actor added.
“The Write Moment” is very important to Jerald as it opened doors for him. He is now in the cast of three new movies where he plays the lead. Jerald joked that his mom did not believe him when he told her that he is playing the lead actor in “The Write Moment.”
“You are always playing the role of the best friend. So who is your best friend in your movie?” said Jerald of his mom’s reaction when he told her he was the main male star in “The Write Moment.”
The movie reminds us of “Kita Kita” where a plainlooking guy is paired with a pretty girl (Empoy Marquez and Alessandra de Rossi).
“They say being funny is the new pogi,” said Jerald, who had a live-in relationship with a sexy French model for two years, until the girl had to leave for France and they cannot maintain their long distance romance.
“Sayang naman ang career ko kung susunod ako sa kanya. Ngayon pa lang ako bumubongga,” he shared.
Jerald hopes “The Write Moment” will become as successful as “Kita Kita” which earned P350 million. “Kahit P300 million lang ang kitain nito, masayang-masaya na kami. Sana yung mga nanood ng ‘Kita Kita,’ panoorin din ang movie namin.”
According to director Dominic, who also wrote the script, he was able to watch Jerald in the hit musical “Rak of Aegis” and he was impressed with his performance. That gave him the idea to cast him in the movie.
He had worked with Valeen in a project some years ago and he told himself that if ever he gets a chance to direct his own movie, he will get her as the lead actress. “The Write Moment” is his reunion project with Valeen.
When asked why he and Valeen click, Jerald said that he and Valeen are really an item but it’s a secret. Of course, that was a joke.
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A cast member of an upcoming teen movie geared for the millennial audience failed to attend the meeting for the movie’s promo. Even her handler was unable to attend because there was conflict in her schedule. The promo schedule was finalized but she was not part of it.
Well, she may really be interested in helping promote the film but what she did was a real turnoff. When she learned that the promo did not include her, she demanded (yes, demanded) to have a meeting with the producer and the director and insisted that she ought to be part of the promo.
To appease the starlet, the producer and the director moved heaven and earth just to accommodate her request, lest she might throw a tantrum. So even if the schedule of the promo was to have the all-male cast do all the mall shows (after all, the male cast are the leads in the film), the starlet was the lone female cast trying to get attention amidst the screaming fans of the male cast members.
We wonder why the starlet insisted in joining the mall shows. She doesn’t even have a name yet. We don’t even think her presence in the mall show would matter at all since the male cast is the movie’s main selling point.