Sigaw/ Echo starts shoot in Canada sans Iza
Remember the Funfare story a few weeks ago about the Regal suspense-thriller Sigaw, directed by Yam Laranas, which will be remade by Hollywood retitled The Echo?
Sigaw stars Iza Calzado (with, among others, Richard Gutierrez and Angel Locsin) but, sob and sigh, it seems that Iza is left out in the Hollywood version despite Laranas’ efforts to have her cast.
“You see,” said Edmund in his e-mail, “Filipinos in New York are hoping that Iza will be included in the The Echo cast. The reports here don’t mention Iza’s name at all, and only its lead actor, Jesse Bradford, and Scottish actress Louise Linton.”
Told that Iza is out, Edmund sounded disappointed.
“Sayang,” he said, “Iza would have helped draw the Asian crowd. Besides, mas magandang multo ang Asian kaysa Caucasian, di ba?”
Edmund also mentioned in his e-mail the following news item about The Echo and other films also shooting at the same time in Canada, published in the July 9, 2007 issue of CanWest News Service:
Two foreign directors are spending part of the summer in Canada making new movies with stars like Julianne Moore and Gael Garcia Bernal.
Filipino filmmaker Yam Laranas will shoot the English remake of his 2000 thriller Sigaw in Toronto for one month beginning Aug. 13. Entitled The Echo, the film stars Jesse Bradford (Flags of Our Fathers, Swimfan) and Scottish actress Louise Linton.
The Echo is the story of an ex-convict who moves into an old apartment building and becomes trapped in a curse when he tries to save his neighbour from her abusive husband.
Moore and Bernal will be in Toronto until early September with co-stars Mark Ruffalo and Danny Glover to make Blindness, a new feature by Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener).
Based on the novel by Jose Saramago, the film is about a woman who becomes the only person who can see in a town where everyone is struck with blindness. As the town descends into chaos, she pretends to be sick so that she can take care of her doctor husband.
Also shooting in Toronto this season is The Incredible Hulk with Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth and William Hurt; Flash of Genius with Greg Kinnear and Lauren Graham; The Love Guru with Mike Myers; and The Rocker with Rainn Wilson, Christina Applegate and Teddy Geiger.
Briefly Noted
• Congratulations to G Tongi whose commercial titled Canvas won several prestigious trophies from the Aurora Awards and Telly Awards at the ongoing New York Film Festival (NYFF). It was the only commercial running in the NYFF. “The commercial is a public service announcement from A Window Between Worlds through Women in Film of which I am a member,” G wrote to Funfare. “I play a mother/wife with a battered past who uses art to heal.”
• Congratulations, too, to Carlo Muñoz and his wife, Enid “Meg” Reyes, on the birth of their second child, also a boy (named Isaiah Marcus), who was born (8.7 lbs. and 20.5 inches upon delivery) last July 3 in L.A. The couple’s first child, Joshua, is two years and three months old. Carlo and brothers Leandro (father of 13-year-old Cheska) and Angelo (whose wife Carmel also gave birth to their first child early this year) have been living in California since 2003.
• From reader Evelyn O. Padel of Santa Rosa, Laguna (reacting to a recent “body talk” with Marky Cielo): Marky is half-Igorot, half-Visayan. His mother is from the Mountain Province and his father is from Butuan City where Marky was born and lived until he was 13 years old. He moved to the Mountain Province when his mother got a job in Baguio. Marky speaks fluent Ilocano and Visayan.
• From reader Liberty L. Josue, US Family Health Plan Support, Pacific Medical Center (reacting to the “monkey” issue involving Martin Nievera and Pops Fernandez):
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed is a very popular little poem made into wee books for wee people here in America.
I believe that most young fellows get the thrill of jumping on the bed. The book introduces not only a lesson on the danger of jumping on the bed but also subtraction. What we have at home for my spunky two-year-old grandson has funny pictures and I’d say it is one of the books he doesn’t want to give away to some kids back there in the Philippines.
If you are familiar with this, you won’t take offense if your kids are called little monkeys. I often hear moms doing groceries fondly calling their toddlers “little monkey” with endearment not humiliation. I call my little grandson little monkey when he jumps on the bed. I guess the misunderstanding boils down to cultural differences. In the Philippines, there is so much stigma attached to the word monkey. Meanings are found in people, not in words... so the time worn truth in communication says.
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