John Lloyd Cruz officially returns to the big screen with the upcoming film adaptation of Ricky Lee’s short story “Servando Magdamag.”
Award-winning director Lav Diaz will be helming the project, as seen in a video on Black Sheep’s YouTube channel yesterday, Feb. 5. The movie’s production began last December.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwnWrz4GCsE&t=22s
Lee said Diaz initially came across his short story when the filmmaker was a first year college student in Ateneo de Manila University. Diaz recalled that most of his classmates threw the story away at the time because they could not understand its deep Tagalog lines.
However, Diaz pointed out that the piece was written in “very elegant Tagalog” and in a “stream of consciousness” style. Years after he first read the story, Diaz’s intention to adapt it into a film never went away.
Lee also noted that Diaz wanted to create the adaption even before he ventured into filmmaking. Meanwhile, Diaz mentioned that he wanted to pursue the film because he liked the material’s “narrative and political weight.”
The two had been planning the adaptation for years already, but it only becoame a reality last year. Lee cited his difficulty of fitting the “stream of consciousness” style of his story into a film script as one of the reasons behind the delay.
Cruz plays the main character, Servando Sais, who comes from a family of Spanish hacienderos. The film ultimately centers on the history of Filipino violence in the country, Diaz explained.
Prior to his leading role in the said movie, Cruz previously had a cameo appearance in “Culion,” another project written by Lee.
Cruz last top-billed a film in 2017 when he starred alongside Sarah Geronimo in the romantic comedy film “Finally Found Someone.” Later in the same year, he announced that he was taking a hiatus from show biz “to attend to personal matters.” /ra
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