Erik eyeing foreign market

Curtain-raisers:

•Congratulations to Ruby Rodriguez who is "finally pregnant again" (her own words) with her and husband Mark Aquino’s second child. Their first was born six years ago.

•Cacai Velasquez-Mitra is informing the public that her sister Regine, whom Cacai is managing, is not guesting on Nyoy Volante’s concert on Saturday, June 26, at the Folk Arts Theater. Regine’s name must have been unwittingly mentioned as one of the guests in the concert’s press releases.

•Video Regulatory Board (VRB) chairman Edu Manzano, also chairman of the Optical Media Board (OMB), warned "pirates" against trying to record any or all of the six film in the ongoing 2004 Manila Filmfest. Edu said that OMB agents will be deployed in moviehouses, equipped with state-of-the-art gadgets like night-vision goggles. Edu also announced that the VRB has just thwarted attempts to flood the market with pirated foreign films like Shrek 2 and others yet to be shown. A few weeks ago, 35,000 pirated DVD copies of A Day After Tomorrow were intercepted at the NAIA. Keep it up, Edu!

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Since last late last year when he finished directing two movies, Regal Films’ Mano Po 2 and Gagamboy, both entered at the 2003 Metro Manila Filmfest, direk Erik matti has been "on leave" from making movies.

"I felt drained," Erik told Funfare. "I was totally exhausted."

But Erik hasn’t been idle. Two of the five concepts he submitted to foreign (English) producers were accepted and he hopes to start shooting before end of the year.

"They’re both horror. Shooting will be done here but the movie will be distributed worldwide."

Erik was inspired by the surprise feat of Gagamboy (starring Vhong Navarro in the title role) in the foreign market. Gagamboy has been shuttling between international filmfests, drawing raves in Hong Kong and Italy, and slated to be shown anytime now at more filmfests in Canada (Montreal), Switzerland and Korea. It has also been invited Austria (August) and Spain (December).

"We’ve also been getting inquiries to buy the film’s rights," said Erik. "Negotiations are now going on with distributors from taiwan and Germany."

Erik is also preoccupied with doing commercials. He has been in-demand, especially after he won last April the Ad of the Year (2004) from Creative Guild for the one-minute plug he did last year for Cinemanila (the same ad was named Best Promotional Ad in last November’s Ad Congress in Baguio).

Like his mentor, Peque Gallaga (now based in his native Bacolod) who started doing commercials before he directed movies, direk Erik finds conceptualizing commercials just as artistrically challenging as conceptualizing movies. He did his first commercial after the release of his movie-directorial debut, Scorpio Nights 2. He has done more than 20 so far – and doing more.

Saw that new McDo commercial showing a devoted husband attending to his sick wife? Erik did that.

The Volta Duo

Two heads are definitely better than one. Ask Ma. Melizza "Mel" Mendoza-del Rosario and Artemio C. Abad, Jr. who have teamed up as scriptwriters for the Ai Ai delas Alas starrer Volta, Star Cinema’s 2004 Manila Filmfest entry.

Mel, 42, wife of Quezon City Councilor Ricky del Rosario (younger brother of Viva Boss Vic del Rosario, Jr.) and a Maryknoll AB Com Arts undergraduate, started working at Viva Films (1984-86) as advertising and promotions manager, and at TAPE, Inc. (1986-88) as executive assistant to VP Production and associate producer of the TAPE-produced Eat, Bulaga! (of which she was account manager, 1988-98).

Since she started writing scripts, Mel has done more than 35 for movies and won several awards (from Urian, Star, FAP, etc.). She’s currently creative manager and head writer for Maalaala Mo Kaya, hosted by Charo Santos-Concio. She has been with MMK since 1991.

Among her mentors are Olive Lamasan, TAPE’s Tony Tuviera, Vic del Rosario, Jr. and Star Cinema’s Malou Santos.

Artemio, 26, quit his BS Physics and Computer Engineering studies at Ateneo on his third year to pursue a course in Electronic Engineering at the Tokyo National College of Technology under the Monbusho (Ministry of Education, Japan) scholarship program. Then he went back to Ateneo to finish his BS Physics.

His first exposure to showbiz was doing research consultancy job for the Otosan episode of MMK in June 1999. The episode was directed by Olive Lamasan who encouraged Artemio to join Star Cinema as a production staff. He trained as a script continuity man in the Vilma Santos starrer Anak and moved as a script supervisor for Minsan Minahal Kita (starring Sharon Cuneta and Richard Gomez).

He trained as assistant director in Got 2 Believe, also under Lamasan, before he finally joined Star Cinema’s Creative Department in 2001 as a senior creative assistant, in-charge of Ang Tanging Ina (the blockbuster Ai Ai delas Alas 2002 starrer).

And now, he’s reconciled with Ai Ai in Volta where the comedienne plays a Wonder Woman kind of character, endowed with super powers by a lightning volt.

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