Hollywood film starring Hartnett being shot in Davao

DAVAO CITY – Not just one, but five big budget Hollywood films.

With Josh Hartnett’s action-packed “I Come With The Rain” scheduled for release next year, the gold-rush site of Mt. Diwalwal, in Monkayo, Compostela Valley, is gearing up as shooting location for four other Hollywood films as well.

“Aside from ‘I Come With The Rain’, the production crew who came here last week said they would be shooting three other films in Mt. Diwalwal. I still do not know the details of the three other Hollywood projects,” according to Mt. Diwalwal barangay chairman Franco Tito.

Hartnett, of “Pearl Harbor” and “Black Hawk Down” fame, would be among the first Hollywood stars the local miners would have the chance of rubbing elbows with.

A selected crew of 200 local miners were hired as extras, each receiving P300 daily as talent fee.

Tito said Canal Plus, the movie outfit that produced “I Come With The Rain,” was impressed with the spectacle of mud-soaked small-scale miners trying to earn a living in Mt. Diwalwal, considered as the site of the country’s biggest gold deposits.

“They could not believe the prevailing life realities in Mt. Diwalwal, how those shanties were built in a very rugged terrain and unstable foundation. They were amazed at how the miners managed to live in such a condition which inspired them to do three more films with Mt. Diwalwal as location,” Tito said.

The mountain is home to more than 50,000 small-scale miners who started digging for gold since the early 1980s.

Tito said the visiting foreign production crew even wanted to make a documentary of the living conditions of the miners and the history of the place.

Tito said that Hartnett is scheduled to visit the site in September for the filming.

Hartnett plays a retired policeman-turned-private detective haunted by past memories while he searches for a missing heir with healing powers. Hartnett’s exploits bring him to various locations in Asia.

The film has reportedly an $18-million budget for a 10-week location shooting, in Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Mt. Diwalwal in the Philippines.

The film is currently in production, with the initial scenes taken last Monday in Hong Kong, to be followed by the location shooting in Mt. Diwalwal.

Categorized in the detective/crime genre, “I Come With The Rain” also stars Tran Nu Yen Khe and Korean heartthrob Byung-hun Lee as the Hong Kong gang bosses who control a vast Asian drug network.

“I Come With The Rain” is directed by renowned Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung, of “The Scent of Green Papaya” fame. Tran also wrote the screenplay.

Tito admitted security concerns were among the issues raised by the production crew.

“I assured them of their security while filming here. That I can guarantee them that no one among the crew and the stars, including Hartnett, would be harmed here,” Tito said.

Tito stressed visiting foreign filmmakers were impressed by the peace and order situation in Mt. Diwalwal.

This came even after a check with the military and police commanders in the region revealed no arrangements have been made for the security details of Hartnett and the rest of the production crew.