Director Peque Gallaga Back Directing Regal'S Erotic Love Drama 'Seduction'

PEQUE GALLAGA, the director of landmark films “Oro, Plata, Mata” and “Scorpio Nights” is back behind the camera directing Regal’s erotic love triangle drama, “Seduction”. What made him come back? “I retired,” he says. “And when you retire, ang utang mo keeps going up. By chance, I saw Mother Lily and she said, ‘I heard you’re poor na’. And I said, yes, mother. She said, ‘O, you make a movie for me.’ Siempre, yes agad ako. My only condition is I don’t like to do a horror film. She said she wants me to direct Richard Gutierrez. She and Roselle chose the project for me, a script by Aloy Adlawan. I fell in love with it.”

So how’s working with Richard? “I worked with him before as production designer of ‘Sugo’ on GMA in 2005. Before we started ‘Seduction’, I warned him, I’ll make you suffer and work hard. First scene we shot, he’s drunk, lalabas lahat ng hinanakit ng loob niya, a very difficult scene. Usually, sa first shooting day, you shoot something light lang so I told him, let’s do this scene some other day. He said, why not now? So we did it and I was surprised. P... ina! He’s good! Actually, it’s Richard and his twin Raymond who inspired me to do ‘Tiyanak’. They were in a movie na tiyanak daw sila but they’re elves. Sabi ko, hindi ganyan ang tiyanak. So I made my own tiyanak movie.”

What’s “Seduction” all about? “It’s about a man, Richard, who falls in love with two women. Solenn Heussaff is fire, destructive, with the appeal of adventure and excitement. Sarah Lahbati is water, life-giving, with the appeal of home and family. There are no contravidas here, but love turns into obsession and violence. When I was asked to direct again, I panicked, I got scared. The world has changed. Viewers now are into Twitter, Facebook, social media. So I have to change, too. It’s like beginning again. But Mother Lily is very pleased with the movie. We shot about four hours of footage and we’re still cutting it down.”

“Seduction” opens in theatres on January 30.