‘Lingua Franca’ director Isabel Sandoval and Arjo Atayde | Images: Instagram/@isabelsandoval, @arjoatayde
Isabel Sandoval, director of the acclaimed film “Lingua Franca,” shared that she is working on a new movie starring Arjo Atayde.
On her social media accounts, the US-based actress-director revealed that she will be coming to the Philippines in April to shoot the film “Moonglow,” which she said is inspired by two classic movies.
“I’m making a new movie. MOONGLOW is a 1960s noir set in Manila inspired by Casablanca and In A Lonely Place. Shooting begins in April. Incredibly excited to make this with such a stellar team,” she wrote.
The Filipina filmmaker said that her new feature will explore Philippine crime and politics with “lush romanticism.”
“In the midst of my involvement in various U.S. projects, my storytelling always finds its way back to the heart of my homeland,” she told Deadline.
“The film is about the tragedy of losing one’s moral compass, an elegy to the death of idealism and sense of integrity within oneself. It subverts noir conventions with its subtle feminist bent,” added the director.
Sandoval’s 2019 movie “Lingua Franca” which she directed and starred in received critical acclaim when it premiered in the 76th Venice Film Festival and gathered nominations from different awarding bodies.
In 2022, Sandoval directed an episode of Andrew Garfield-led series, “Under the Banner of Heaven,” and also directed some episodes of Prime Video’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty.”
Atayde is also set to star in the upcoming ABS-CBN crime series “The Bagman,” which is a spin-off of “Bagman,” for which he received the Best Actor in a Leading Role award at the 3rd Asian Academy Creative Awards.
“Moonglow” will follow the story of a female police detective who everyone believes to be the mastermind of a successful heist, and gets partnered up with an investigator to solve the very crime that she created.
The noir crime thriller will be produced by Alemberg Ang of the Philippines’ Daluyong Studios, Tan Si En of Singapore’s Momo Film Co., Takahiro Yamashita of Japan’s Yaman Films, and Ria Atayde of the Philippines’ Nathan Studios.