Why Piolo, at 42, prefers to do movies than TV soaps

Piolo Pascual

Piolo Pascual has turned down all offers to do TV dramas, but promised to be more visible on the big screen, both as an actor and film producer.

“I’m staying away from soaps because I want to be able to do more with my time,” he said.

According to the 42-year-old actor, he is at a point in his life where he is “discovering how else I can use my celebrity status to help the industry.”

By this, he meant starring in or producing more movies via Spring Films, which he coowns with filmmaker Joyce Bernal and businessman Erickson Raymundo.

While he admitted to have considered retiring, Piolo is now saying: “I’ve changed my mind. There are so many things I can still do. There’s no point in retiring. I’m living it one day at a time. I’m thrilled with the idea of creating new  films. We’re taking advantage of the fact that there are so many concepts being pitched to us, all of them new and interesting.”

To mark its 10th anniversary, Spring Films is expected to release 13 movies in 2019, starting with the commercial release of James Robin Mayo’s “Kuya Wes” on March 13. Ogie Alcasid plays the titular role.

Among the projects that Piolo is currently working on is the controversial “Children of the Lake,” a story on the Marawi siege.

From left: Erickson Raymundo, Joyce Bernal and Piolo Pascual

After its original director, Sheron Dayoc, resigned from the project, Piolo’s team has hired first-time full-length filmmaker Omar Ali to write the script and codirect the movie with Joyce.

“We got a true Maranaw to write and direct it. My character has also been changed. I’m no longer a soldier, as  previously announced. It’s now an offbeat character. I like it better. It’s more challenging, more controversial,” Piolo declared.

He will also be part of the film called “Ang Araw ng Itim na Nazareno,” to be directed by Lav Diaz.

The film takes place in an alternate reality in 2019 where the tyrannical Philippine president holds a mock snap election to regain the trust of his discontented constituents. So a police intelligence officer decides to take radical measures to save the country.

Piolo also topbills “Post Angst,” written and directed by (former Eraserheads guitarist) Marcus Adoro. The actor described it as a “stoner film,” since marijuana serves as the lynchpin of the stories of five men who try to face their own demons.

Former Eraserheads frontman Ely Buendia is the writer and director of the film “The Bouncer,” which Piolo also headlines. It tells of a man hardened by violence who decides to    turn over a new leaf as he attempts to defend the club he is working for from shady regulars.

Piolo will also appear in Raya Martin’s romantic drama “Puppy Love,” which is based on F. Sionil Jose’s short story about two childhood sweethearts—a small-town boy and the daughter of the richest landowner in town—who reunite after the decades that followed the Japanese occupation, only to discover that their respective experiences during the war have completely changed and broken them.

Other films in the Spring Films pipeline: Avid Liongoren’s animated film “Hayop Ka,” featuring the voices of Robin Padilla, Arci Muñoz, Sam Milby, Angelica Panganiban and Empoy Marquez; RC de Leon’s “Chona: Istariray is Born,” starring Regine Velasquez; Sigrid Andrea Bernardo’s “Walang Kaparis,” with Empoy and Alessandra de Rossi in the lead.

Negotiations are ongoing for Kathryn Bernardo to star in Ed Lejano’s “A Short History of Parking Lots,” reported Piolo.

Boy 2 Quizon will have his directorial debut with “I’m Ellenya L.,” starring real-life couple Iñigo Pascual and Maris Racal. Also in the lineup is Korean director Kim Tai-sik’s “Sunshine Family.”