Philippine Showbiz Today
June 22 - July 7, 2018
Jan. 22-Feb.7, 2015
11
James Reid stars in P100-M
Pedro Penduko film
The forthcoming Pedro Penduko
film, which stars James Reid and fea-
tures an appearance of Nadine Lus-
tre as Maria Makiling, has a produc-
tion budget of P100 million making
it one of the most expensive films to
be produced by a local outfit.
A dynamic partnership is mak-
ing Pedro Penduko, the Filipino
comic book character created by
National Artist for Literature Fran-
cisco V. Coching come to life even
more massive.
Beyond your run-of-the-mill
comic take, EPIK Studios has part-
nered with Viva Entertainment and
Cignal TV to create more than fifty
extraordinary comic book characters
making the film close to the heart of
those who love Philippine folklore.
One of Viva’s biggest stars,
James will portray Pedro Penduko
as the ordinary Filipino who is out to
fight the forces of evil with the help
of an extraordinary amulet. Filipino
actor Efren Reyes Sr. was the first to
play the role in 1954. Other actors
who portrayed the iconic folk hero
were Ramon Zamora, Janno Gibbs
and Matt Evans.
James is currently undergoing
martial arts training for the rigorous
scenes in the film, now with a mo-
dern twist for superheroes for the
current generation.
“The character is really fun to
play and I’m confident that I can re-
ally pull it off,” James told the press
during a media launch on Thursday.
For its part, Cignal TV is bring-
ing Pedro Penduko and all these oth-
er thrilling characters to life through
films and series, and distributing
them through different platforms.
The partnership goes beyond video
entertainment as it ventures into
merchandising and gaming.
The re-imagined version of Pe-
dro Penduko in 2019 is going to link
other films that will be part of a cin-
ematic universe slated to unspool
in theaters one after the other until
2021.
Epik Studios also will do a re-
boot of Carlo J. Caparas’s Totoy
Bato, also scheduled in 2019, Ber-
nardo Carpio in 2020, and a movie
on sea siren hero “Osyana” and Na-
dine Lustre as Maria Makiling.●
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