Let’s face it. We may be at the last frontier of traditional entertainment and media, and it is crucial now more than ever to gather the troops and be one in pushing high quality entertainment and content by Filipinos to the world. With the ever-changing landscape of how audiences consume entertainment, we have to move as one. It is already beautiful to see the media juggernauts ABS-CBN via Star Cinema and GMA Pictures collaborate again with two of today’s brightest stars — Kathryn Bernardo and Alden Richards — for the sequel to the massive box-office hit “Hello, Love, Goodbye.”
But with today’s reality, what is even more beautiful is seeing everybody in the somewhat close-knit Philippine showbiz community, doing our part in getting the word out there about this highly-anticipated movie by director Cathy Garcia-Sampana. Of course, with the powers of Star Cinema and GMA plus KathDen’s influence, this film does not need much effort to confidently say that it will smash box-office records. Because it will.
But! But! But because the audience landscape can be volatile and it is fast-paced with so many choices for media consumption at the tip of one’s fingertips, now is not the time to be complacent. “Hello, Love, Again” promises superb quality and with the team behind it, the awareness to propel the story to every viewer via cinema as far as it can is now the goal more than ever. The world has to see this.
Thanks to ABS-CBN and GMA, we had the opportunity to sit down with Kathryn and Alden as we did represent OnePH and TV5 for broadcast. In the old scheme of television things, this would never happen. If you’re a fan of showbiz news, you know why. It is because the old model of things would have networks to just promote their projects in their own backyard.
With a project as massive as Alden and Kathryn’s though, “Hello, Love, Again” deserves utmost unity more than ever from broadcast to digital to print to tell the whole world what will happen next to the love story of Ethan and Joy and how their love story will play out in the midst of the Filipino community situation in Canada.
Kathryn looked back on the last quarter of 2023 when her smash hit “A Very Good Girl” started a momentum for audiences to go back and make cinema a habit as she shared with us that she hoped that this would push that same button again for the audience and more. This served as the spark for her to continue to strive more and offer us a KathDen comeback with this film.
“What happened last year was, it gave us hope. And it inspired us and all movie producers as well. So nakakatuwa na nagtutulong tulong lahat para makabalik tayo sa ganitong klaseng set-up and we’re happy that the past movies naging successful also and we are hoping for the best for this film na sana mas ma-encourage natin iyong mga tao na slowly andyan na sila at bumalik at gumastos uli kahit na magkano?” said Kathryn.
“Less than P500 pesos and iba na rin ngayon ang mahal… but they’re back so iyon ang naging inspiration namin.”
Alden added, “We owe it to the people and we owe it to the industry. I think more than anything, the industry has been so good to us, workers. Hindi lang naman kami but even you guys are involved in this. Iyong comfort na nabigay niya sa amin is the least we could do to not let the Philippine cinema die.”
“Hello, Love, Again” will be shown in the Philippines this Nov. 13. Because of the international demand, here is the schedule for the international release dates: New Zealand, Nov. 14; Australia, Nov. 14; United States and Canada, Nov. 15; Guam, Nov. 15; Saipan, Nov. 15; Middle East (United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman), Nov. 28; Singapore, Nov. 28; Malaysia, Nov. 28; Cambodia, Nov. 29; and Hong Kong, also in November.
Kathryn and Alden are also gracing international screenings in the US, Canada and UAE this November. Mabuhay ang pelikulang Pilipino!