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| director LAURICE GUILLEN with NORA AUNOR & KYLINE ALCANTARA |
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| Add captiofrom left to right: zoren legaspi, direk laurice, ate guy, kyline, isabel rivas, gabby eigenmann, ina feleo |
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| from left: gabby eigenmann, zoren legaspi, mylene dizon, ate guy, isabel rivas, direk laurice, kyline, yasser marta, ina feleo and divina valencia |
LAURICE GUILLEN rules GMA’s Afternoon Prime as a director. Her shows “Hanggang Makita Kang Muli”, “Ika-5 Utos” and “Ika-6 na Utos” all rated well.
Now, she’s back with another surefire winner in the ratings game, “Bilangin ang Bituin sa Langit”, a TV adaptation of a 1989 hit movie starring Nora Aunor.
Ate Guy is the only member of the film’s cast that is now also in the TV soap and Laurice is glad to work with her again after directing her before in the movie “Kung Ako’y Iiwan Mo” in 1980, exactly 40 years ago.
“I use Nora as an example for all the other members of the cast as it’s a great pleasure to be working with a great survivor in our industry,” she says.
“Nora is such a professional. She is so focused on her work as an actress at kahit may sablay sa eksena, hindi siya basta nagka-cut at naise-save pa rin niya ito. She’s a great performer. Kahit sinusumpong siya ng asthma at kahit ikamatay niya, ginagawa pa rin niya. Hahanga ka talaga.”
Ate Guy quickly thanked Laurice for her good words. “Maraming salamat, Laurice,” she says. “Karangalan kong makatrabaho si Laurice na isa sa pinakabatikang director ngayon sa ating industriya. At masaya akong nagkaroon ng remake ang pelikula namin noon at puro magagaling ang mga artistang kasama ko rito kaya ginaganahan ako laging magtrabaho.”
We notice they made a lot of changes from the original film in the TV adaptation. Nora then played two characters, Magnolia and her daughter Maggie de la Cruz. Now, Magnolia is played by Mylene Dizon and Maggie is played by Kyline Alcantara, while Ate Guy plays the mom of Mylene, Mercedes, who becomes a fugitive from the law after she accidentally killed Dante Rivero.
The showbiz element in the movie was also removed in the TV version. What prompted them to make these drastic changes?
“It’s GMA’s Creative Team who can best answer that,” says Laurice. “Ako naman, binibigay lang nila sa’kin ang script na ginawa nila and then idinidirek ko. But I think changes really have to made kasi iba ang medium ng TV sa pelikula. Sa TV, this is a serial na araw-araw mapapanood, so dapat lang na mas pahabain at mas pakapalin ang story.”
“Bilangin ang Bituin sa Langit” will start airing this Monday, February 24, to be telecast right after the tween drama, “Prima Donnas”, which is a big hit so no doubt it would be a great pre-program for “Bilangin”.
Aside from “Prima Donnas”, GMA Afternoon Prime’s other hit show is “Magkaagaw”. With “Bilangin ang Bituin sa Langit” joining forces with “Magkaagaw” and “Prima Donnas”, the Kapuso network no doubt now has a very formidale lineup of afternoon programs.
