Perez: It's Nora or nothing
Posted: 10:40 PM (Manila Time) | Oct. 05, 2003
By Nini Valera
Inquirer News Service
'Bituin, Buwan at Araw'
DIRECTOR Elwood Perez is no longer keen on joining this year's Metro Manila Film Festival even if his movie project starring Nora Aunor has crept up to the 10th slot of finalists.
Perez said he might just have to wait for another film festival before he starts shooting "Bituin."
"Officially, the movie is now on hold," he said. "It's already too late in the day to consider making the film just to make it to the festival. I am not the type of person who would just rush into things."
Perez told Inquirer Entertainment that Aiza Seguerra, one of the lead stars of the project, titled "Bituin, Buwan at Araw," is no longer available to do the movie.
"So out of delicadeza, we are not doing the movie just to make it to the film fest," he said. "She [Aiza] is as important to us as the other stars in the cast."
Aside from Nora and Aiza, the movie would have starred Snooky Serna and Jiro Manio.
Star Cinema's "Milan" had pulled out of the film fest due to delays in the shooting schedule.
The next in line, Dolphy's "Harry Father," also dropped out since the comedian wanted to change the story, which the film fest committee did not allow.
Perez pointed out that he was a stickler for detail: "I am very precise about what I want in the movie and I want Aiza to be in the movie."
He also questioned the changes in the cast and script of the other entries, like Viva's "Paano Kita Pasasalamatan," which originally had Lolita Rodriguez among the lead. Lolita, whose asking price was reportedly $1 million, was replaced by Armida Siguion-Reyna.
But Caloocan City Mayor Rey Malonzo, who is the vice chair of the MMFFP, said minor changes in the cast and script were allowed by the committee.
"We allowed such changes," he said in a cell phone conversation. "What we did not allow was a total change of project, as in the case of Dolphy."
Malonzo added that the filmfest committee might opt not to fill up the 10th slot anymore.
"We'll just have nine entries, but nine films that will hopefully make money," he said.
'A movie within a story'
Perez, whose collaboration with Nora in the '80s produced hits as "Till We Meet Again," "I Can't Stop Loving You," and "Pacita M," among others, admitted he was desperate to do another Nora starrer.
"I am the person who suffered most when the film was not chosen as an entry," he said. "I have been out of the scene for about a decade. During those years that I was not making movies, I was trying to develop materials, and this Nora Aunor movie was one of those materials. It was a very long process. We've been working on the material for so long, that's why I'm so frustrated.
"This is not a cheap project. We need original songs. There's a story within a story, a movie within a story."
It also took Perez a long time to convince a producer to bank roll the project. That producer is lawyer Gaudioso Manalo, who refused to be interviewed, saying he had given his director the authority to talk on his behalf. Manalo, however, said he would still produce the movie next year.
Perez also debunked the perception that a Nora Aunor movie would bomb at the tills.
"Between Nora and myself are several movies that were hits," the director said. "We have a history of blockbusters. Will the producer invest so much money on the film if he thinks it will not make money?
"I don't want to rock the movie industry. I don't want to sound like I'm sour-graping. My movies with Nora Aunor made money. I will still make the movie, even if I have to wait another decade to do it."
