PH ENTERTAINMENT CAN COUNT ON DEAN DEVLIN AND COMPANY
NOT long before the pandemic shattered these islands like the rest of the world, two of government’s most hard-working women — Department of Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo and Film Development Council of the Philippines Chairman and CEO Liza Dino — had just rolled out an ingenious project dubbed “Let’s Create Together” on a global scale.
In a nutshell, the joint effort of these agencies would put out an invitation to film industries of the world to shoot their TV shows and movies anywhere in this beautiful country, and get a bang for their budget if they choose to work with any of the Philippines’ first-rate entertainment talents, be they on cam artists or technical pros.
The whole idea is a grand slam win from any angle. On our side, it is bound to bring a significant boost in tourism while providing invaluable opportunities for our entertainment industry to prosper and learn from the world’s best.
Now on for the foreign side, the benefits can likewise be a gold mine. For starters, the foreign production, no matter the movie genre, will have abundant options for locations across the country, many of which could have only been painted by God above.
Secondly, in choosing to work with local actors, co-directors, cinematographers, animators, editors, set designers, graphic artists or even musicians and arrangers, they can be sure to receive end products of a distinct quality which many of them are also aware have made leaders out of Filipino immigrants in countless creative fields around the world.
Financially, that “bang for the budget” further refers to a handsome rebate on total production cost (a specific figure is required under the DOT-FDCP program) in the Philippines, for release by government as soon as the director declares, “That’s a wrap!”
Best of all, whether you’re a producer, the boss director, an actor, or even just the actor’s agent making a movie here, imagine the promise of paradise in the Philippines in between filming hours, which tourists to this country have famously raved about since time immemorial.
Now this invitation still stands out there for the international film community to consider — it is, after all, an Oscar or even Cannes worthy concept if you will — but of course, as the rest of the world begins to recover from the Covid crisis, with our beloved Philippines determined to catch up, the industry’s counterparts will definitely need a compelling reminder of what we have to offer.
Let’s thank our lucky stars then that there’s a big Hollywood hotshot by the name of Dean Devlin who has a soft spot for the Philippines and its movie talents as active as ever in the business of blockbusters. Yes, he’s the very man whose name appears as producer in the credits of such legendary Hollywood “Independence Day,” “Godzilla,” and “The Patriot.” And all while the DoT and FDCP’s boss ladies were dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on their film tourism program, Mr. Devlin — CEO of Electric Entertainment — already had Hollywood actor Christian Kane and the rest of his team over in Cebu shooting the landmark American crime drama series, “Almost Paradise” for the following reasons: The show is the first US series entirely shot in the Philippines, as well as the first co-production between an American and a Filipino company, via ABS-CBN.
Currently on its last two weeks on cable’s Kapamilya Channel and free TV A2Z, the Philippine audience only happens to come second to viewers of WGN America (now known as NewsNation) in the United States to enjoy this actionpacked story of a former US Secret Agent (Kane’s Alex Walker) who is drawn back to duty after retiring in the island paradise of Cebu. For even as our very own Nonie Buencamino, Art Acuña, Samantha Richelle, Ces Quesada and Angeli Bayani (along with guest spots from ZsaZsa Padilla, Sophia Reola, Richard Yap, Raymond Bagatsing, Noel Trinidad, Lotlot de Leon, Ryan Eigenmann and Ketchup Eusebio among others others) seem to outnumber the production’s American cast, Almost Paradise already completed its 10-episode run in the US as early as March through June of 2020.
With Pinoy pride high since the show’s local premiere in late
March this year, Mr. Devlin gave the industry another huge boost when he announced in a digital interview Wednesday that Almost Paradise was very well received stateside. Take note, that that besides being shot entirely in Cebu and featuring a Filipino cast, the positive response to series also involves the handiwork of four Filipino directors, namely Dan Villegas (Episode 4), Francis Dela Torre (Episode 3 and 7), Hannah Espia (Episode 6 and 9) and Irene Villamor (Episode 8), under the supervision of colleague Ruel Bayani as ABS-CBN International Production and CoProduction Division Head.
Bayani — who acknowledged in the same interview that the Filipino team had the overriding goal of “show[ing] the world the quality of content made by Filipinos” as co-creatives of Almost Paradise —was all the more exhilarated when Mr. Devlin added, “We’re only just starting to play around the world — we’re very popular on the service [IMBD] — and everywhere it plays, I get inundated with emails and DMs and tweets of people going, ‘I had no idea the Philippines was like that’.”
At that point — with the Hollywood producer handing out nothing but good news — The T-Zone found the perfect opportunity to land that all-important reminder to the rest of the world that the Philippines — once it’s safe — is wide open to them too.
“Mr. Devlin,” we ventured, “given the success of Almost Paradise in the US and your team’s very positive experience of making the series here, could possibly put in a good word for us to your counterparts all over the world so we can eventually get our film tourism program going?"
Who better to tell them right?
Now heed.
“Well first of all, I tell everybody it’s horrible [in the Philippines] because I want to corner the market,” he joked. “I don’t want anyone going but me so I just lie to everybody and say it’s awful you know.” Don’t you just love him? “Now the truth of the matter is before we even came, we had the privilege of distributing in the United States or actually around the world [Filipino director] Hannah Espia’s movie ‘Transit,’ and that gave us a window into the evolution of what’s going on in the Philippines in the world of cinema.
“Hannah’s movie got us so excited about it and we started doing more research so we started seeing all these amazing actors, all these amazing films, these cinematographers and production designers. And we realized in the last 20 years, the Philippines really raised its game as far as the quality of talents of both people in front of and behind the camera.
“So when we made the decision to go to the Philippines, I wasn’t really worried about being able to get the quality level because you guys have it. I think the only thing that’s really holding it back is that it hasn’t been exposed to the rest of the world. But the more people see, it’s going to be a huge industry here.”
And with his promise that Almost Paradise Season 2 is almost certainly a go, the Philippine entertainment industry can certainly count on Mr. Devlin and company to get all that is artistic, creative and beautifully God-given to this country out there, and in due course, get more of Hollywood and other major movie industries of the world out here.
Don’t miss the last two episodes of Almost Paradise, airing every Sunday, 8:45 pm on Kapamilya Channel, A2Z, iWantTFC, and Kapamilya Online Live (KOL) on Facebook and YouTube.