Hottest tickets in town

DICAPRIO. Perfect choice to play a hero-antihero character.

New TV shows start telecasting every week, but May 22 is particularly exciting, because it’s the premiere telecast of the first “The Apprentice–Asia” challenge. The American original has billionaire Donald Trump as host and executive producer, and has been a hit for years.

“The Apprentice–Asia” will be telecast at 9:05 p.m. on AXN and pits 22 Asia-based business people against each other, with the winner getting the plum opportunity of working in one of program host Tony Fernandes’ corporations. Fernandes is an aviation tycoon, so his businesses can be literally said to be flying high!

The good news is that one of the Asian businessmen competing on the new show is a Filipino—marketing director Jonathan Allen Yabut. It’ll be interesting to see how he deals with the many conflicting mind sets and work ethics operative in the region, which are definitely less homogenous than the original all-American show.

Like other Asians, even modern ones, “our” bet will have to be good at “reading” the unspoken signs and symbols governing business relationships in the region, and thus avoiding the many hidden “land mines” along the way to winning the top plum!

Before that ultimate victory, however, the competitors will have to do well at each week’s task, and, at the end of every telecast, one hapless hopeful will have to steel himself as he hears the fatal words: “You’re fired!” —Let’s hope it won’t be Yabut!

Should-see

Also a should-see this month, this time on the silver screen, is Baz Luhrmann’s “The Great Gatsby,” which opens in town this week. The P64,000 question is, will it have enough clout and moxie at the box office to finally stop the weeks-long dominance of “Iron Man 3”? Most prognosticators think that will be a tall order, but Luhrmann has had a strong following ever since “Moulin Rouge” hit the screen with its unique combination of “operatic” visuals and highly eclectic soundtrack—so, who knows?

In addition, the brainstorm to cast Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role is indubitably inspired,

because at this stage of his career, the popular actor has acquired a compelling mix of attributes that makes him the perfect choice to play a complex hero-antihero character like Jay Gatsby.

He still has his dreamboat looks, but they’re now tinged with a certain sadness or darkness that makes them a bit “dangerous”—and lurking danger is excitingly compelling to see on the movie screen.

Finally, since it’s set in the Roaring Twenties, Luhrmann’s film is luminously, orgiastically visual, as if the director channeled Busby Berkeley, Cecil Beaton and Liberace to get his film’s look exactly right!