Tikoy Aguiluz to finish 'El Presidente'
Director Amable “Tikoy” Aguiluz, who added another feather to his cap - a Best Director trophy from the 37th Metro Manila Film Festival Awards for “Manila Kingpin: The Asiong Salonga Story” – said he is willing to continue work for “El Presidente” which Jeorge “ER” Ejercito plans to enter in the next Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF).
Tikoy’s reaction to ER’s call for truce and wish that he (Tikoy) still direct “El Presidente” is, ”Oo naman, but first we have to resolve our problem with ‘Manila Kingpin: The Asiong Salonga Story (the MMFF 2011 entry .”
A few days before the official opening of the much-anticipated annual December film festival, Tikoy went to court to stop the showing of “Asiong Salonga” through a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO). He did not succeed however, because MMFF Over-all Chairman Francisco Tolentino stepped in to say that in a sense MMFF entries are not subject to TROs.
In an interview with Boy Abunda for “Bandila,” Tikoy claimed that about two-and-a-half minutes of the gunfight scenes in “Asiong Salonga” was not his. And the ending was not what he envisioned it to be.
“Nawalan ng impact,” Tikoy said.
Apparently, the producers took over to do what they thought was best for the movie.
“Sabi nila mabagal, but at that time, wala pang movie scoring, hindi pa nailalapat,” Tikoy added. “And then, nawalan na kami ng communication.”
He has made a lot of important movies like “Bagong Bayani” and “Segurista” among others, including some films for international release, but Tikoy pointed out that “I never encountered any problem with my producers. I’ve been in the business long enough to know that there’s always compromises to be made, as long as there’s communication between the director and the producer…”
He would have wanted to do a Director’s Cut to be shown internationally.
“Manila Kingpin: The Asiong Salonga Story” opened like the rest of the entries on Dec. 25, 2011 but there were only 17 prints made available by SQ Laboratories when it should have 51 prints like the rest of the entries. The remaining 34 theaters were filled up by the other entries.
Even as it suffered seemingly insurmountable setbacks (as ER said, “sa laki ng pinagdaanan naming problema, akala ko di namin makakayanan na ipalabas ang pelikula namin.”) “Manila Kingpin: The Asiong Salonga Story” came out the big winner in the film festival’s awards night and won 11 major awards.
Mixed feelings
Tikoy has mixed feelings about the film’s victory: “(I feel) Happy because the movie won most of the awards in the MMFF Awards Night, but sad too because hindi ako nakasakay sa float, gusto ko sana nandun ako.”
Tikoy also said that his dream is to direct Nora Aunor (ER’s leading lady in El Presidente”) in another movie. Why Nora when she’s known to have caused gargantuan problems for her producers and directors?
“Because Nora has magic!” Tikoy replied.
Another dream of his, he said, is to do an indie movie with John Lloyd Cruz.
