Juggling year-end milestones

CEBU, Philippines - In an ideal world, Dingdong Dantes prefers that all his TV and film projects follow the “Content is king” mantra. In the same breath, he also doffs his hat to those who pander to what the movie-going masses are known to gobble up.

It’s another example of the actor being his usual peace-loving, controversy-averse, and always politically correct self. While he praises his “Aswang Chronicles” director Erik Matti for not giving in to the pressures of the mainstream movie studio system, he also looks at the bright side of why box-office-motivated filmmakers operate like they do.

Asked how it was working with Matti all these years, Dingdong says, “It’s a blessing to work with brilliant people like him. He is a filmmaker in the real sense that for him, content is king – meaning, he will not compromise a project just because of other circumstances involving actors, the weather, and whether or not a movie will be a surefire blockbuster. Everything else revolves around the material. Sometimes, the way we do things, there’s that demand for a movie to be released in a particular quarter because it’s when a lot of people troop to the cinemas. Or to make a movie for the pleasure of a particular audience. The people I work with have the opposite mindset.”

To each his own

The 34-year-old Kapuso star, in Cebu recently with castmate Isabelle Daza to promote his MMFF 2014 entry “Kubot: The Aswang Chronicles,” clarifies that for him, it is also okay to have the audience in mind first.

“It’s a different approach for every director – either way, it’s still respectable for me. I respect people who always think of the audience first. But again, this is a different approach, and I appreciate his [Matti] style.”

It’s the same “to each his own” outlook he has when it comes to criticism of the annual MMFF having long lost its original mission of showcasing Filipino films of the utmost quality, and has instead become a highly-commercialized affair that has profit as its primary aim.

   “Each festival varies. Everyone has a different perception of what a festival is, and what the core is behind putting up an event. The MMFF has its own core values. Ultimately, I think it’s about celebrating the holidays and being with family through watching the festival entries. We can have as many film festivals as we want, but each one has its own objective. Cinemalaya has its own objective…there are festivals for students, for 15-seconder art films. So, to each his own.

It just so happens that this is [MMFF] what the masses, what the majority of Filipinos want,” Dingdong explains.

Visayan folklore

For his own 40th MMFF entry currently showing in theaters, Dingdong remarks that more than awards, his wish is to have as many people as possible watch their magnum opus.

“As long as you have good material to back you up, you will always be confident and proud of what you brought out to the table – sans awards or topping the tills,” says Dingdong.

“Kubot,” collaborated on by GMA Films, Dingdong’s Agostos Dos Pictures and Reality Entertainment, is the sequel to the hit “Tiktik: The Aswang Chronicles.”

Juggling duties as lead actor and co-producer is no mean feat. Dingdong says he managed both tasks by focusing on one role at a time.

“When I’m on set, I take off my producer’s hat. I maintain my hat as an actor. You can’t mix the two, otherwise, you will lose focus,” Dingdong dished. “I just make sure that things are already in place even before I start the project. As a producer, my primary concern is for it to have a part three. You think ahead. It can have a part three without me, because the legacy is the franchise. ‘Tiktik’ came out two years ago, so it can be an every other year thing.”

Shot for nine months on mountain and city locations, Dingdong swears this second installment is better in storyline, special effects and other production essentials.

“Tiktik” ended in the fictional place of Pulupandan, where the whole aswang massacre occurred. The main characters leave thinking all is well until they were ambushed on their way to Manila. Macoy, the main character fleshed out by Dingdong, will this time battle against Doms, the main villain played by KC Montero.

Of the choice of former VJ KC in the hideous role of a kubot, Dingdong explains, “We want to show what people don’t normally see, especially in festivals. That also goes with presenting unexpected actors in certain roles. When you say main villain, we would always think of top three names. But this is an opportunity for us to explore other actors, and not conform to what we’ve been used to. We want to discover a different way of how to present a villain – which, I feel we did with KC’s role as an Amboy (American boy) son of an aswang. You may have been raised in America, but you can still be an aswang if its runs in your blood. KC is a very funny guy that was really able to pull off the role.”

Dingdong describes “Kubot” as a furball that squeezes out a human being’s innards for it to feed on. Part of Filipino folklore that he says is of Visayan origin, it was sprung from an idea of director Erik Matti who hails from the Visayas. “Filipino folklore is so rich, that we can get any story from the genre at any time,” he says.

D-day

As filming for “Kubot” started nine months ago, it fortunately didn’t collide with preparations for him to wed Marian Rivera this Tuesday, December 30, at the Immaculate Concepcion Church in Cubao.

“A bit anxious if everything we planned will be executed, but over all, it’s more of excitement,” expresses Dingdong of his state of mind as the big day nears. “What’s important is the wedding ceremony. Once that’s over, the rest will be a party.”

What was the most challenging part of the wedding prep? “The guest list!” he replied in a heartbeat. “In my 34 years in this world, and in my 15 years in the showbiz industry, along the way, we meet people that we become friends with, and the ceremony is just not enough to have everyone together. As much as we want everyone to be present, there are limitations. So finalizing the guest list, I would say, was the most difficult.”

On one hand, the most fun part for Dingdong of ironing out the nitty-gritty was “the daily challenge of thinking, of anticipating how many more days ‘til D-day. And then suddenly, an idea pops into my head, so we have some details changed again. We haven’t had a final program yet that’s super set in stone, so there’s that excitement of not knowing what to expect.”

Dingdong shares he decided to skip the hassle of keeping wedding details hush-hush, or surprising the country with a secret ceremony (ala Judy Ann Santos and Ryan Agoncillo) because no matter what he does, the event will become public.

Extra security measures, he reveals, will be put in place because of President Benigno Aquino’s attendance.

“We’re also not discounting the possibility that there will be people within the vicinity who would want to witness the ceremony, so we arranged the outside premises to have proper seats, security, and wide screens. We will also take time to say hello to the people who will come.”

If Marian had said that intimate scenes will no longer do for her once she’s Mrs. Dantes, Dingdong says he won’t necessarily place similar limitations on his acting jobs, as he “always had very fair judgment when it comes to that. If I feel that a scene or some other requirement is not necessary in a project, I don’t do it.”

After this huge milestone, Dingdong is set to host the new season of “Starstruck,” to be launched this January.