Deleter not originally meant for the MMFF
After the box-office success of his horror-suspense thriller Deleter, Mikhail Red, known as an indie director, has been in talks with major film studio Viva Films for two more genre projects.
Deleter, the top-grossing entry in the recently-concluded Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), is topbilled by award-winning actress Nadine Lustre.
“Things just fell into place. Ang feeling ko ganu’n lang ang mindset namin when we make movies. We just want to have fun. The project should excite us and challenge us. Stars will align and the public will feel our passion to make a quality film.”
A sequel to Deleter has yet to be decided upon. “We will decide where we can take the success of Deleter,” direk Mikhail maintained. “We cannot announce anything officially yet, but expect more diverse genre films for future editions of the festival or theatrical releases. It’s exciting times for local filmmaking, especially that the audience is back to the theaters.”
Deleter was not originally meant for the 2022 MMFF when the project started filming last July 2022.
“When we started filming, it was not in our plan to make Deleter join the MMFF,” disclosed Nadine, the lead star and 2022 MMFF Best Actress winner. “We are still in cloud nine. The success of Deleter hasn’t sunk in yet. There are still a lot of people watching. I still read a lot of positive tweets. Up to now, we cannot believe what happened.”
After the MMFF officially ended last Jan. 7, Deleter was extended in several other theaters all around the country. The film will also tour around the globe to be screened in several international festivals.
Filipinos based abroad will get a chance to watch Deleter as Viva Films scheduled international screenings and premieres. The film has registered a whopping P240 million gross locally, as of Jan. 9.
The best thing that Nadine appreciated in Deleter was that the audience really supported her film. It became the 2022 MMFF top-grosser, edging out the comedy entry, Partners in Crime, with perennial film fest box-office winner, Vice Ganda.
“At least, I know the audience really appreciated Deleter,” Nadine asserted. “Every time I watched Deleter, I could hear the moviegoers were really screaming and they all clapped after. They really liked the film.”
The two-time Urian Best Actress winner unselfishly wished for “more work” this 2023.
“My plan for this year was to really grind and get back into circulation,” Nadine added. “I don’t want to break the stride.
“I don’t want to break the momentum or worse, even lose it. So while it is here, I will continue working. I’m excited to work. I hope to get more out-of-the-box projects.
“I’m always up for challenges. It’s so hard to get boxed into one particular genre. I guess for someone like me who has been in dramas and rom-coms for a while, until now, there are still many people who could not believe I did horror.
“It’s hard to get tagged into one genre. While it is still early, I don’t want to be typecasted into a particular genre.”
Nadine never expected any awards for Deleter, although she felt the pressure. “I didn’t want to have any expectations, although others were constantly telling me, Deleter will become No. 1, it will win many awards, I will become Best Actress.
“I got more pressure that people were really expecting me to win. I am so unassuming. That maybe kind of hard to believe that I never really expected.”
The success of Deleter was undoubtedly one of the biggest highlights of Nadine’s 2022. That sealed her working relationship with Viva Films again, which started early last year when she did Greed, with Diego Loyzaga and directed by Yam Laranas.
“Just like any family, nagkakaroon naman ng misunderstanding,” Nadine allowed. “I’m happy that I got to work with Viva again. They are open to more out-of-the-box projects. I’m excited.”
The rest of the cast members were surprised when they learned Deleter climbed to the top spot of MMFF entries after the film bagged major awards as Best Picture (for Viva Films), Best Director (for Mikhail), Best Actress (for Nadine) and several other honors in the Gabi ng Parangal.
“We got excited and overwhelmed when our film won several awards in the MMFF,” said supporting cast Louise de los Reyes, herself nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category.
“Our film was in second place at the start of the MMFF, but lumaban to eventually land in first place. It was so heartwarming to know that the entire Philippines supported Deleter.”
To become a top-grossing entry in the MMFF was “unexpected” for everyone. “We got most of the awards and we were not expecting any of that, although we really wanted Nadine to win,” supporting cast Jeffrey Hidalgo said.
“Super surreal until now, especially when we learned Deleter topped the MMFF. We are just really proud and very blessed that we became part of this monumental project.
“The rest of the awards were super unexpected, especially being No. 1. Hindi pa rin siya nagsi-sink in up to now. For a film like ours to be nominated, that really proved the taste of the audience is really changing. Deleter is the feature commercial film that will really make you think.”
Another Deleter cast member, McCoy de Leon, did not show up at the Thanksgiving Party held at the Greyhound Café in Rockwell, Makati.
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