Alvin Anson in search of greener pastures

Alvin Anson is the type of guy who works quietly. But even then, his efforts are so unlike the seed planted on barren soil. He reaps a rich harvest for them. The irony is, he reaps the harvesst, not on home grounds, but elsewhere. 

DVDs of his films Bro and Honey, I Love You, have been released in Japan. The Great Raid, which saw Alvin working alongside lead star Cesar Montano and Benjamin Bratt, was shown in the US. Same thing with Island of the Living Dead, a horror film released in Italy. 

Alvin played a major role in the independent film Prayer Before Murder, co-produced and co-directed by director Cyril Lorenzana. It was shot in Stu Segals Studio in San Diego, California.

Getting recognized abroad more than in the Philippines is just fine with Alvin, who gets his adrenaline rush in firing shot after shot as a member of the military special force in the new Italian film Zombies the Beginning.

Alvin has been seeing action onscreen for so long now it’s become second skin to him. As a brave treasure hunter who turns into a zombie in Island of the Living Dead, he did a lot of jumping, running and darting through trees and foliage.

As the guy fighting the Yakuzas in Bro, he parried the blows from Daniel Woo, a protégé of Jacky Woo no less.

The action may be punishing, the schedules more so. But Alvin doesn’t mind. He’s getting the physical training he needs, and the international exposure he enjoys.

Boots Anson-Roa’s younger brother ticks off figures: “The Great Raid (under Miramax production) is one of the top three videos in the US.  It accounts for as much as 52 percent of the film company’s sales.”

The film became Alvin’s ticket to other foreign productions where he made his producers sit up and notice. After he passed auditions for  Island of the Living Dead which was shot two years ago for instance, Alvin expected to shoot his scenes for just four days.

He must have impressed his producer Gianni Paolucci (of Diamonds International Films), his female co-star and production managers — all Italians — they decided to extend Alvin’s scenes. His work stretched on to 16 days and he got the longer exposure he deserved.

Since then, Alvin and Paolucci’s relationship went beyond the producer-talent level. It deepened into friendship. Paolucci asked Alvin to work as the Filipino counterpart to the Italian production manager in The Creature.

Then, when Paolucci decided to return to the Philippines for the nth time to shoot Zombies the Beginning, the choice for the lead role was easy. He called Alvin, who welcomed the chance to work with Paolucci and his part-Italian, part-Filipino crew again.

“The Italians follow a strict production schedule,” relates Alvin. “If the call time is say, 7 a.m., you must be in the van (that will take you to the shooting site) by 6 a.m.”

And they don’t scrimp on the budget at all. Paolucci forked out P50-M for Zombies the Beginning, which will have a free special screening at SM Megamall Cinema 4 tomorrow, March 15, 7:30 p.m. Cocktails will be served at 6 p.m.

“I’d like as many Filipinos as possible to see the film. That’s why I’m opening it to them for free,” says Paolucci.

If he talks with such fondness for Filipinos, it’s not only because the Italian filmmaker has done 12 movies in the country. It’s also because he has fallen for the charms of Yvette Yzon, a morena beauty from Cotabato City whom he met three years ago on the set of one of his films.

Athletic Yvette (she’s into taekwondo) did all her stunts and refused a double in her role as a brave biologist in Zombies. After all, she’s no stranger to the movies herself. The former dancer on ABC 5’s now-defunct Eezy Dancing has done six movies, two of them with MMG Productions (which folded up after controversies hounded it).

Lithe and nimble Yvette thinks nothing of jumping from a cascading waterfall in Zombies by herself.

Paolucci’s love affair with the Philippines started the minute he first stepped foot in the country in 1996. Paolucci was then a production manager for a movie the Italian company he was working for did with Regal Films.

He liked what he saw — in the country, its stars and production crew. So the next chance he got, Paolucci convinced his Italian director-friend to return to the Philippines and shoot a movie. Good thing Paolucci’s contacts were still around to help him.

Thus did the producer-writer start fulfilling his dream of shooting a film in various parts of the Philippines.