Every Christmas, the Monteverdes are always in the thick of
preparations for the annual Metro Manila Film Festival. This year, in
celebration of Regal's 48th anniversary
celebration, the film outfit offered two installments of its past franchises: Desperadas 2 starring Ruffa Gutierrez,
Rufa Mae Quinto, Iza Calzado, Marian Rivera and Ogie Alcasid as well as Shake, Rattle & Roll X. The
three-part horror film stars Gerald Anderson, Kim Chiu, JC de Vera, Roxanne
Guinoo, Mylene Dizon, Wendell Ramos, and Marian Rivera, among others.
"It has been an exciting year for Regal and I am happy that we are able to
come up with different kinds of films that were steadily supported by the
audience," said matriarch Mother Lily
Moteverde (who remains a consultant of Regal after formally turning over
management of Regal Films to daughter Roselle Monteverde-Teo).
"We look forward to producing more films in 2009,"
says Roselle, who now heads Regal Entertainment, "and I'm excited to see
into fruitition our Regal digital film series."
The new head explains that she set up Regal Digital as a way
of supporting new filmmakers who can pitch their scripts for a possible
production deal. A creative team will evaluate the proposals and the chosen
projects will be allocated P1 million each.
The scripts will be categorized in three genres: horror,
love story and youth-oriented films. Regal plans to produce 10 major films in
2009, and there are also plans to subsidize 10 digital movies.
Pre-production is already being done for the Richard
Gutierrez-KC Concepcion Valentine film, which is a co-production with GMA
Films. Script development is also underway for the Judy Ann Santos-Ryan
Agoncillo film. There are also two projects earmarked for Regal contract stars
Marian Rivera and Dennis Trillo.