Christopher de Leon, Leo Martinez, Bela Padilla lead cast of ‘OTJ: The Series’

Christopher de Leon plays a veteran journalist. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

For some time, we thought it wouldn’t happen after having heard nothing of it since it was announced early this year that there would be a return of Erik Matti’s 2013 world-acclaimed film “On The Job” not on the big screen but as a series in an online platform.

Before the year ends, Matti’s “OTJ: The Series” will push through on Hooq with a stellar cast of popular young stars and top-notch actors from theater. More surprising, the cast members are top-billed by Christopher de Leon. And when you say “actor,” De Leon encompasses all genre.

“In my role here, parang if you remember ‘Broken Marriage,’ journalist din ang role ko dun, mala gung-ho, parang ganon more mature nga lang yung character ko now. Mas balanse siya. He knows that lahat nang nasa paligid niya may conflict of interest. The role was tailor-made for me. Hindi naman ako nag-audition,” says De Leon.

The three driving forces behind the project are Globe Studios, Hooq and Reality Entertainment and they made sure “OTJ: The Series” will be the thing to watch—wherever, whenever, however for the busy viewers, especially the young Internet savvy users. Hooq is considered Asia’s first and largest premium video-on-demand service today.

“It’s a new medium for me kasi online siyang mapapanood,” says De Leon. He added he is very excited to be part of an innovative project whose target audience are the millennials.

“My character is a nice guy. Principled siya at pinangangaralan niya ang mga nagsusulat sa newspaper niya na maging objective at balanse sa kanilang isinusulat. [It is called] ‘La Paz News,’ isang local publication. Then, magkakaroon siya ng conflict kay Sisoy, played by Teroy Guzman, isang corrupt media man who tries to cover up iyong mga ginagawa ng isang powerful political clan,” says De Leon.

Guzman is a well-respected theater actor. Among his outstanding roles was playing Beethoven in Red Turnip Theater’s “33 Variations”.

De Leon pointed out it’s an honor to be directed by master filmmaker like Erik Matti, who is known for the film version of “On The Job,” the blockbuster “Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles” and the internationally acclaimed “Honor Thy Father.”

“We did a movie before pero kalahati lang siya at hindi natapos and I’m glad na makakatrabaho ko siya kahit sa isang series,” says De Leon.

He is hoping with “OTJ: The Series”, he will offer and leave something valuable to the younger generation.

“We hope na maka-connect sa young audience natin,” he says.

The stellar cast

Besides Teroy Guzman, also part of the cast is retired top ballet dancer-turned-actor Nonoy Froilan, who plays the role of Pedring, a politician. Froilan acted for spoken word artist-playwright Juan Miguel Severo’s one-act-play “Hintayan ng Langit”. It was part of a festival of untried, untested one-act-plays called the Virgin Labfest. It was staged at the Experimental Theater in the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2015 and 2016.

Erik Matti, director of “OTJ: The Series”. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Bela Padilla plays Pam, a feisty journalist. TV-film-theater actor Neil Ryan Sese plays Roman the hired gun. Jake Macapagal, another multi-hyphenated actor whose roots are also in theater, is part of the cast. Completing the cast members are Leo Martinez, Nafa Hilario Cruz, Renz Fernandez, Arjo Atayde, Smokey Manaloto and Dominic Ochoa.

The story

Season one of “OTJ: The Series” follows the story of four people:  Sisoy, a corrupt local media man under the payroll of Pedring, the treacherous father of the town’s ruling political clan; Pam, a passionate and honest big network investigative journalist from Manila; and Roman, a principled hired gun regularly brought out of prison to kill.

Their paths cross when eight journalists from Sisoy’s town are massacred by Roman’s group and buried without a trace a day before Christmas Eve.

Pam jumps on the case just as Sisoy discovers his connection to Pedring won’t help him find out what happened to his friends. Despite their differences, the two work together to untangle the web of lies, controversy and corruption in a media circus where the truth seems elusive to them.

Based on Matti’s multi-award winning movie, “On The Job: The Original Series” marks the first big production created exclusively for an online video service in the region.

The six-part series is co-produced by Reality Entertainment, the independent film outfit of Matti and Dondon Monteverde in partnership with Globe Studios.

First original content production

‘It’s about time that we expand the themes that we started in the original ‘On The Job movie,’” says Matti.

“Creating a mini-series exclusively for a video-on-demand service like Hooq will allow us to explore unique stories that will be sure to pull in viewers who will want to get more immersed in this compelling world we’re building,” he adds.

For Hooq, this is the first venture into producing original content. It is a natural alignment to Hooq’s content strategy to differentiate its content and to play a part in growing the local content industry.

With director Erik Matti (third from left, back row) and producer Dondon Monteverde (fourth from left, back row) are some of the cast members of “OTJ: The Series”. They are (back row, from left) Dominic Ochoa, Bela Padilla, Arjo Atayde (second from right) and Teroy Guzman (rightmost, back row); Front row, from left are Jake Macapagal, Nafa Hilario Cruz (the little girl), Renz Fernandez, Ria Atayde, an unidentified personality and Smokey Manaloto. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

“Hooq Originals enhance our best-in-market content offering by adding exclusive local movies and TV series that are made for SVOD, and we are very excited to partner with both Reality Films as well as Globe to produce the first Hooq original here in the Philippines,” says Krishnan Rajagopalan, Hooq Co-Founder and Chief Content Officer.

“OTJ has become one of the most iconic films in recent history and we want to continue to elevate that high standard set by the movie,” says Jeffrey Remigio, Director of Content at Hooq Philippines.

Globe Senior Advisor for Consumer Business Dan Horan adds, “We are very excited to finally start production of this new venture as it strengthens our commitment to provide the best content for our customers whether they are at home or on mobile. From partnering with content producers, we are now taking the next big step by co-producing all original materials, and Director Erik Matti’s OTJ series is the perfect choice given the success of its movie counterpart.”

Hooq will be releasing “OTJ: The Series” in the Philippines and internationally to its other markets such as Thailand, India and Indonesia.

Hooq currently holds the largest catalogue of Filipino content of any video-on-demand service from top local studios like GMA, Viva Communications, Regal Entertainment, and ABS-CBN. It has also increased its kids content throughnew partnerships withViacom, Hasbro, MoMax, amongst others. Hooq has also recently unveiled a mobile-first UX that enables customers to easily find movies, create playlists and discover even more content.

Hooq, a start-up venture between Singtel, Sony Pictures Television and Warner Bros., is an award-winning service that empowers customers with unlimited online streaming access and an offline viewing option to top Hollywood and Filipino movies and television content, on any device including computers, smartphones tablets, smart TVs via Google Chromecast and now also on Airplay and mobile web.