It’s Final! Claudine Barretto is Gabby Concepcion’s Leading Lady

April 18, 2008

Claudine Barretto will be the leading lady of Gabby Concepcion in the first teleserye he will do for ABS-CBN. This is entitled “Iisa Pa Lamang,” based on the Danny Tan hit song popularized by Joey Albert, to be directed by Ruel Bayani and Manny Palo.

This was already filmed by Regal Films before starring Richard Gomez, Dawn Zulueta and Maricel Laxa (who won several best supporting actress awards for this), directed by Joey Reyes who wrote the lyrics of the song. Susan Roces will be part of the cast.

Claudine has just finished taping the entire four-week run of ”Maligno”, the TV remake of a 1977 horror film that gave Susan Roces her second FAMAS best actress award. She co-stars with Diether Ocampo and Rafael Rossell, directed by Wenn Deramas.

In the presscon held at ABS-CBN Studio One last Wednesday, the first episode was shown and it will surely be enjoyed by horror fans as Direk Wenn knows how to push the right buttons to give them a good scare.

The series starts with Rio Locsin leaving her daughter in an orphanage. She’s a member of a cult and her daughter is supposed to give birth to the son of the devil later. In the show’s first ten minutes, all of Rio’s companions get killed horribly one by one. One is hit by a truck, another crushed by a “pison”, and still another’s skull gets split by a signpost.

Rio’s daughter grows up to be Claudine, in her TV comeback after giving birth to her son Santino, a newscaster whose documentary on “kulam” was nominated for an award abroad. Obsessed with her is a strange painter, Rafael Rosell, who turns out to be the man destined in a prophecy to be the father of the devil’s son. He rapes Claudine and this is a delicate scene since Rafael is in the nude and covered with blood throughout the sequence, but the MTRCB passed it uncut.

Claudine subsequently gets pregnant and the devil’s son grows up played by child actor Carlo Pacana, a TV commercial model who auditioned for the role. He was chosen because of his innocent looks and yet he could act menacingly evil.

Claudine plays the Susan Roces role in the original, while Rafael gets the role of Eddie Garcia and Diether Ocampo, the role of Dante Rivero. We asked them if they saw the movie and they said they chose not to so that they will not be affected or influenced by the performances of the original actors.

“Maligno” will replace “Palos” and start airing on April 28. Also playing important roles in it are Kim Chiu as a reporter, Gerald Anderson as a cameraman, and Arlene Tolibas (replacing Eugene Domingo who got so busy she cannot accept this project anymore) as the sinister yaya or nanny who takes care of the devil’s son. No doubt this will rate higher than “Patayin sa Sindak si Barbara”, the first movie in the Susan Roces Cinema Collection remade by ABS.

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