News

It may not seem like the most obvious choice for a Christmas movie – a brutal action film with a protagonist traumatized by a failed mission in the jungle – but Triggered (Topakk) is one of the ten films selected for this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival (Mmff) and is opening across the Philippines on December 25.

Starring Arjo Atayde and Julia Montes, the Tagalog-language film had its world premiere at Locarno film festival in 2023 and has been touring other festivals over the past year. Atayde plays a former special forces operative, now working as a security guard and struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (Ptsd), who tries to save a woman being pursued by corrupt police and a vicious drugs cartel.

“Filipino families tend to go out together over the holidays, but I guess this is one for the dads and their sons, while the mums and daughters go to watch a romcom,...

Exclusive: Upcoming Filipino crime drama series Sellblock has wrapped principal photography and is headed for MIPTV. You can see four first-look images above.

Slated as a three-season series, Sellblock chronicles the activities of one of Asia’s biggest drug empires operating from inside a Philippines maximum-security prison. LA’s Blue Fox Entertainment has boarded the show and will launch it at the final ever MIPTV next week in Cannes, France.

The series is produced by Manilla-based BlackOps Studios Asia, headed by Pedring Lopez, who is known for Netflix’s Maria, Darkroom and Geisha of Death and also leads Psyops8. Lopez directs all eight episodes of the first season.

Blue Fox is handling sales, including the Philippines, and will be screening the pilot episode for buyers at MIPTV as it moves into TV distribution. Filipino producer Abs-cbn was initially attached to the show, but we hear it is no longer involved.

Exclusive: US-based Filipino filmmaker Isabel Sandoval is returning to the Philippines to shoot her fourth feature, Moonglow, starring Arjo Atayde.

Sandoval, who is known for her award-winning 2019 feature Lingua Franca and directing series in the U.S., is scheduled to start shooting the noir crime thriller on April 9.

Set in 1970s Manila, the film follows a jaded female police detective, who unbeknownst to her colleagues is the mastermind behind a successful heist, but who is paired up with an obsessively truth-seeking detective partner to crack the very crime that she orchestrated.

The film is produced by Alemberg Ang of the Philippines’ Daluyong Studios, with Tan Si En of Singapore’s Momo Film Co, Takahiro Yamashita of Japan’s Yaman Films and Ria Atayde of the Philippines’ Nathan Studios.

Arjo Atayde also stars in upcoming Abs-cbn crime series The Bagman and has recent credits including psychological series Cattleya Killer...

Recently-established Philippines-based production and financing company, Fire and Ice, has deals to provide completion funding to two films being produced by prolific Singapore-based independent producer Potocol. Under a related agreement, Fire and Ice has also struck a multi-faceted first-look deal with Potocol.

The completion funding, which gives Fire and Ice a share of the film’s equity, will permit the completion of post-production of upcoming Potocol titles: “Pierce,” a sports drama by Nelicia Low, and “Last Shadow at First Light,” by Nicole Midori Woodford. Both films were recently showcased at Focus Asia’s Far East In Progress, part of the Far East Film Festival in Udine, and are expected to be completed before the end of the year.

The first-look agreement covers titles on Potocol’s slate including a project by Rafael Manuel, winner of a Silver Bear in Berlin in 2020 for his short film “Filipinana,” and another by cinematographer...

Box Office

Gross box office in the European Union (EU) and the U.K. grew by 70% in 2022 compared with 2021 – from €3 billion ($3.27 billion) to €5.1 billion ($5.57 billion), down by 28% on pre-pandemic levels. The numbers were revealed in the 2023 edition of Focus – World Film Market Trends, a report which is prepared each year for the Cannes film market.

Three U.S. films, “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Minions: The Rise of Gru” topped the European charts in 2022, selling 34.4 million, 30.6 and 30.2 million tickets throughout the calendar year respectively. Cinema attendance in the EU and the U.K. increased by 63% from 403 million tickets sold in 2021 to an estimated 657 million in 2022, representing 67% of the average pre-pandemic admission level registered between 2017 and 2019.

European films also performed well and market share for European films increased year-on-year from 26.8% to 28.4% in 2022, the report recorded. It also notes that film production in the EU and the U.

Hollywood producer Scott M. Rosenfelt has joined Filipino TV crime-action series, “Sellblock,” as U.S.-based Blue Fox Entertainment joins as the show’s sales and distribution representative.

Planned as a three-season series, “Sellblock” chronicles the activities of one of Asia’s biggest drug empires which is operating from inside a Philippines maximum-security prison. Production is scheduled to start in May.

The cast is headlined by Jericho Rosales alongside actors Empoy Marquez, Ronnie Lazaro, Mon Confiado, Sylvia Sanchez, and Ria Atayde.

The show is produced by Philippines-based BlackOps Studios Asia, headed by Pedring Lopez. Lopez will direct all eight episodes of the first season.

“Pedring and I are very pleased to expand upon our growing relationship with Blue Fox Entertainment’s executives, Audrey Delaney and Lisa Gutberlet with ‘SellBlock,’ as we are already involved together in two feature projects, ‘CounterPlay’ and ‘Gi’,” said Rosenfelt. “We appreciate their standing in the...

Action thriller, “Trigger” from writer-director Richard Somes has wrapped production and is beginning sales at the European Film Market.

“Trigger” (aka “Tokakk”) tells the story of a lonely security guard (portrayed by Arjo Atayde) previously discharged from the military due to his post-traumatic stress disorder. He finds himself embroiled in a different kind of war when a young woman (Julia Montes) seeks his protection against a corrupt police death squad. While the pair fight for their lives, the man must confront his inner demons to earn his redemption.

The film also stars Arjo Atayde (“Cattleya Killer”), Julia Montes (“Brothers”), Sid Lucero (“The End of History”) and Kokoy De Santos (“Game Boy”) and is produced by Wilfredo C. Manalang of Fusee (the company that co-produced Cannes Camera d’Or prize-winner “Plan 75”), Somes of Strawdog Studio Production, Ria Atayde and Sylvia Sanchez from Nathan Studios and Michaelangelo Masangkay, co-owner of Toronto-based...

Exclusive: Raven Banner Entertainment has boarded action thriller Trigger (Topakk), directed by the Philippines’ Richard Somes, to executive produce and handle international sales.

Currently in production, the film stars Arjo Atayde (Cattleya Killer), Julia Montes (Brothers), Sid Lucero (The End Of History) and Kokoy De Santos (Game Boy).

Wilfredo C. Manalang of Philippines production house Fusee is producing the film with Somes’ Strawdogs Studio Production, Ria Atayde and Sylvia Sanchez for Nathan Studios and Michaelangelo Masangkay and Fernando Henna for Toronto-based post sound house, Theo & Atlas Productions Inc.

Atayde plays a security guard previously discharged from the military due to post-traumatic stress disorder. He finds himself embroiled in a different kind of war when a young woman (Montes) seeks his protection against a corrupt police death squad.

Fusee previously co-produced Japanese drama Plan 75, which is Japan’s submission to the best international feature category of the Oscars. The company also...