ANGELICA Panganiban, Eugene Domingo and Kaila Estrada are among the actresses who will headline director Antoinette Jadaone’s first slate of projects under her newly launched production outfit, Ilaya Ilaya.
Deadline reported on Saturday, Sept. 26 about the launch of Jadaone’s Ilaya Ilaya. The director established the production company with longtime collaborator and producer Reign Anne De Guzman.
The company said it aims to support Filipino stories, women-led narratives, underrepresented genres and filmmakers working outside traditional studio and festival funding structures.
Panganiban is set to star in Jadaone’s dark comedy “Boldstar,” which marks the filmmaker’s return to directing. Bianca Balbuena is producing the project.
“Boldstar” previously won the CJ Entertainment Prize at the Asian Project Market in 2019 and was selected for the Berlinale European Co-Production Market in 2020. The film experienced delays following Panganiban’s pregnancy.
Meanwhile, Domingo will headline “Chandra Catacutan And The Curse Of The Fuchsia Moon,” a supernatural comedy directed by Tim Rone Villanueva.
Domingo will portray the eldest daughter of a manananggal, a creature from Philippine folklore. The story centers on the family being reunited after their mother suffers a stroke while flying and is unable to return to her lower body.
Estrada, meanwhile, will lead the project “Birdsong,” a found-footage horror film directed by Pam Miras and written by Barit, with Irene Villamor serving as creative producer.
Maris Racal, on the other hand, is marking her theater debut as she reprises her role as Sunshine in an immersive stage adaptation of Jadaone’s Berlinale award-winning film.
The Ilaya Ilaya slate also includes “Crème de la Crème,” a coming-of-age whodunnit directed by Villamor and written by Glenn Barit from a story by Natts Jadaone.
The film draws partly from a 2006 incident at Philippine Science High School involving two male students who put mercury nitrate in a female classmate’s water jug, resulting in her missing her graduation march. (Jessica Ann Evangelista © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
