Celebrated Filipino actor to star in movie to be shot in Qatar
FILIPINO actor JC Santos is scheduled to fly to Qatar later this year to shoot his scenes for a movie about an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) who organises concert and shows.
The film titled ‘The Eventologist’ will be the initial movie offering of Advocacy Global Studio, a Doha-based Filipino production company.
At a virtual press conference held on Friday, important details of the movie project were revealed. JC will be playing the lead role of Steven and the movie, which is based on a true life story, will feature actual footages of events organised by the inspiration of JC’s character. It is written and directed by Oscar de Jesus Yema, who himself is a longtime OFW.
JC expressed hope that ‘The Eventologist’ will turn out to be one of the most special projects in his filmography because of the subject and the opportunity of working with a full-fledged OFW-filmmaker.
He also stressed that the struggles of OFWs is close to his heart as both of his parents are OFWs and he himself spent several months working abroad as a singer-dancer.
“I’m very much familiar with the lives of OFWs, my mother used to work in Las Vagas, Nevada while my father is a seafarer. I continued their OFW legacy when I worked in Hong Kong Disneyland and at the Universal Studios in Singapore,” the actor said.
In addition to his eagerness to work with local artistes who are real life characters in the events where the movie’s story was based, JC also said he is excited to travel to Qatar and learn more about the country’s culture and attractions making it a happy home to thousands of Filipinos.
He also said that he wants to fly in at least two weeks before the shoot net of quarantine period for him to able to effectively immerse with the Filipino community here.
JC is known for being a versatile actor who is willing to play any challenging role — whether it is for television, film or stage.
The actor starred in a number of hit films in the Philippines such as ‘100 Tula Para Kay Stella’, ‘Miracle in Cell No. 7’ (Philippine remake) and ‘The Day After Valentine’s’.
Meanwhile, the film’s writer-director Oscar is no stranger to the life in Qatar.
He worked in Qatar’s TV industry and prior to that he spent more than two decades working with the Philippines’ biggest TV networks, rising from researcher to executive producer.
Among the Filipino programmes Direk Oscar handled include ABS-CBN’s ‘Inside Story’, ‘Hoy, Gising!’, ‘Magandang Gabi, Bayan’ and GMA 7’s ‘Brigada Siete,’ ‘Emergency’, ‘Imbestigador’ and ‘Saksi’.