Regal Films

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Regal Entertainment, Inc. is a Philippine filmmaking and entertainment firm, established by Lily Monteverde in 1962. It has produced movies of all genres.

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[edit] Regal films

In business for over forty years now, Regal Films has established its name in making movies that appeal to a broad range of Filipinos. While modern competitors like Star Cinema specialize in producing romance and romantic comedy, Regal has produced movies in all genres, including action, animation, fantasy, comedy, family, documentary, romance, pornography, historical epics, drama, horror, suspense and so forth. Many Filipinos consider Regal as a symbol of national art and culture as a result of its heritage, its stars and its impact on the people.

The following are a few notable films released by Regal:

  • Scorpio Nights - A highly controversial and extremely pornographic movie, released in 1985 at the height of the Filipino people's uprising against then-president Ferdinand Marcos. Directed by Peque Gallaga, Scorpio Nights tells the story of a forbidden love affair between a college student (Daniel Fernando) and a traitorous housewife (Ana Marie Gutierrez). The movie depicts numerous steamy sex scenes and acts of immorality, and was considered graphic as it showed numerous sex acts complete with exposed pubic hair, genitalia and semen. The belief at the time was that Scorpio Nights was approved, uncut, for release by the Marcos administration as a way of distracting the restless public from joining anti-government efforts. A South Korean film was adapted from Scorpio Nights' core story and sex scenes. Scorpio Nights dramatized not only the concept of loveless sex but also Filipino life in poverty and the efforts of the poor to gain the most pleasure out of a difficult existence.
  • Shake, Rattle and Roll - A horror trilogy.
  • Relasyon - A 1982 movie directed by Ishmael Bernal about a married man living a double life with his wife and mistress. While the wife (Vilma Santos) struggles to make her husband happy, the two-timer clearly believes that there is nothing wrong with what he's doing.
  • Tiyanak - A horror movie about a baby that transforms into a killer demon. The movie features Lotlot de Leon and Ramon Christopher.
  • Yamashita: The Tiger's Treasure - A fantasy epic about the hunt for the precious Yamashita treasure. This movie was controversial, not because of its improbable combination of action, comedy and historical flashbacks, but because it won the Best Picture prize of the 2001 Metro Manila Film Festival despite having been panned by critics and moviegoers.
  • Mano Po - A groundbreaking family drama movie featuring a cast of Filipino stars (including Eddie Garcia, Ara Mina, Richard Gomez and Kris Aquino) playing Chinese and Filipino-Chinese characters. As the first Filipino movie that focused on the Chinese heritage of Filipinos, Mano Po was controversial for its cast members playing Chinese people. Regal president Lily Monteverde claims that the movie reflects untold stories from her Chinese ancestry and also declared that Mano Po is the Philippines' answer to America's The Godfather. Mano Po swept the 2002 Metro Manila Film Festival awards en route to a P67.2 million gross (#1 among all entries). It spawned three sequels: Mano Po 2: My Home, Mano Po 3: My Love and Ako Legal Wife: Mano Po 4?!.
  • Live Show (aka Toro) - A pornographic movie, released in 2000, that realistically presents the hard life of Filipinos who resort to prostitution as their main source of income. Because of its realism, graphic sex scenes, suggestions of immorality and portrayal of poverty, Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pulled the movie out of theaters using government authority. Leaders of the local film industry blasted Arroyo for her action, describing her as a "puppet of moral terrorists." Political motives may have been behind the decision, as Arroyo's predecessor Joseph Estrada (a former actor himself) was known to have numerous connections in Philippine show business.

[edit] "Regal Babies"

Actors whose careers began at Regal (or whose success is linked with Regal) are often referred to as "Regal babies." Among the stars who have deep roots with Regal are Kris Aquino, Aiza Seguerra, Christopher de Leon, Vilma Santos, Angel Locsin, Richard Gutierrez, Cogie Domingo, Danilo Barrios, Vhong Navarro, Lotlot de Leon, Ramon Christopher, Susan Roces, Ara Mina, Aubrey Miles, Janice de Belen, Eddie Garcia, Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto, Joey de Leon, Rene Requiestas, Richard Gomez, Maricel Soriano, Snooky Serna, Gabby Concepcion, William Martinez, Albert Martinez, Ruffa Guttierez, Maxene Magalona, Dina Bonnevie, Oyo Boy Sotto, Chynna Ortaleza, Pauleen Luna,Yasmien Kurdi, Rainier Castillo, Jennylyn Mercado, Mark Herras, Marian Rivera, Dennis Trillo and Arman James Parcon

[edit] Trivia

  • Regal Films is well known for its lavish ceremonies promoting its stars and movies. In typical fashion, a contract signing or film promotion is normally held in one of the private properties owned by the Monteverde clan, such as the Century Imperial Hotel. These events feature lavish decorations (Example: Chinese decorations for the Mano Po film series launching), a fest of unique foods (Moon Cakes for Mano Po 2's premiere), and play host to selected members of the media and other luminaries.
  • Unlike Star Cinema, Viva Films and GMA Films, Regal is funded mainly by the real estate business empire of the Monteverde clan instead of media or entertainment revenues. Even though many of Regal's expensive film have lost money, the studio remains alive thanks to financial support from the properties market.
  • Regal has clearly established itself as a special effects powerhouse in Filipino movies. It produced Spirit Warriors: The Shortcut with a staggering budget of P80,000,000. The movie, featuring a group of teenage boys adventuring through different worlds facing monsters, featured the best special effects and computer graphics of Philippine cinema at the time of its release. Despite its media hype, the film grossed only P36.5 million in the local box-office. Most recently Regal provided the special effects and props of Mulawin: The Movie, which was produced for P40,000,000.00
  • Stars of regal films are called "Regal babies" because there are trivia in the Show entitled "Ang Pinaka" on QTV chanell 11, hosted by Pia Guanio, said that if there's Mother Lily(because the industry of showbusiness called him Mother lily) there are also babies

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Yamashita: The Tiger's Treasure

In the 2001 Metro Manila Film Festival, Regal's Yamashita: The Tiger's Treasure won the Best Picture award over the much favored Bagong Buwan (a film about the military conflict in Muslim Mindanao). Many moviegoers and critics were shocked over its selection for the top award as the movie was presented as an adventure comedy film tackling the legend about the lost gold of Yamashita in the Philippines. For the most part, Yamashita was a fantasy and its subject matter was considered irrelevant to "Filipino values", current events or even culture. Prior to its release, Yamashita rode a wave of hype as "the Philippine answer to Hollywood's Pearl Harbor" due to an action sequence featuring Japanese fighter planes attacking a Philippine base (similar to what happened in Michael Bay's movie). The sequence was produced with the most advanced Filipino special effects available at the time.

[edit] Aubrey Miles

In 2002, Regal Films announced its decision to heavily invest its resources on Aubrey Miles, a new sex symbol in the Philippines. As part of its publicly announced investment, Miles signed a multi-million Peso movie contract with the company and her first major movie Prosti was released as a heavily-promoted pornographic feature.

Miles also appeared on Regal's other films (either as lead actress or supporting actress) such as Sanib, Xerex, Gagamboy, Kuya, Singles, A Beautiful Life and Pa-siyam.

Aubrey Miles is widely believed to be highly paid as an actress with Regal Films. Insider reports that circulated in the media stated that the actress was paid at least P2 million to as much as P6 million per film. Despite having a minor role in A Beautiful Life, Miles was paid P5.8 million, which was P3 million higher than what she received in Xerex.

Although the grand old film company never admitted it, the entire public greatly believes that Aubrey Miles is already a mother of a 3-year-old child, whose father continues to be unknown today (though some believed a college student was responsible).

Inside reports revealed that as part of the deal between Regal and the sexy actress, the company has committed to preserving Miles' motherhood secret as long as she continues to work and bring them success.

Veteran actress Dina Bonnevie revealed in a highly publicized interview that Miles was already a mother, which was exactly the reason why during the casting of the movie Mano Po 2: My Home, she refused to play a role as the mother of Miles (who was considered for a daughter role). In the end however, neither actress appeared in Mano Po 2.

In late 2003, when Miles deliberately did not show up for an evening shooting for the film Kuya, Regal matriarch Lily Monteverde contacted the actress through cell phone and out of frustration, threatened to reveal the secret of her child to the public. Miles then responded and rushed back to work that same night.

Despite the resources, critics branded Miles a poor actress. While Prosti (a movie about Philippine prostitution) became a success and brought her some fame, Miles' succeeding movies Xerex and Sanib were both commercial failures and were critically panned.

To date, none of Aubrey Miles' other movies could match the commercial success of Prosti, which made P29 million.Since 2002, Miles has received a total of P40.6 million in salary and bonus payments from Regal Films.

[edit] Feud with ABS-CBN and Star Cinema

A feud between Regal Films and ABS-CBN erupted in late 2003 when the latter's film company, Star Cinema, released the comedy Mr. Suave starring Vhong Navarro. Lily Monteverde had long planned on releasing Navarro's first-ever starring role under Regal's banner; the film was Gagamboy, a Filipino superhero movie inspired by Marvel's Spider-Man. But due to extended post-production for special effects, Gagamboy was not released in 2003 as planned. Regal instead scheduled the film for a January 1, 2004 release as part of the 2003 Metro Manila Film Festival's 2nd half salvo. Unfortunately for Regal, Star Cinema's Mr. Suave was released months ahead of Gagamboy and officially became Navarro's first leading role.

Since then, Regal has no official business deals with ABS-CBN or Star Cinema. In 2004, the renegade movie outfit started casting majority of the GMA stars for their movies (mostly coming from the reality-based artista search Starstruck) instead of ABS-CBN stars. As a result, ABS-CBN started humbling themselves before Mother Lily and allowed most of its major stars to work for Regal. Among the ABS-CBN talents allowed to do movies for Regal were Christian Bautista, Sandara Park, Nash Aguas, Rica Peralejo, Iya Villania and Pinoy Big Brother housemates Say Alonzo and Franzen Fajardo.

[edit] Displeasure over 2005 MMFF awarding and film festival boycott

Due to her anger over the results of the 2005 Metro Manila Film Festival, Regal founder Lily Monteverde shocked the public by announcing her company's boycott of film festivals in the future and her assertion that she would encourage other producers to do likewise. In confirming the announcement, Regal Films released an official press statement, which read as follows:

"Regal Entertainment Inc., while appreciative of the many accolades and awards received by its film Blue Moon, would nonetheless like to voice its concerns over the unclear and confusing basis that may have applied by the MMFFP jurors in deciding the winning entries in certain categories.
In particular:
1) On the choice of (OctoArts Films') Kutob as winner of the Gat. Antonio Villegas Award: The Gat. Antonio Villegas Award is given to the film which best showcases and exalts Filipino values. Since Kutob is a film about a psychotic young man, what are the Filipino values supposedly depicted by this movie?
2) On the Best Director Category: The quality and excellence of a motion picture largely depends on the skill and performance of its director. The movie Blue Moon exemplified excellence and technical superiority, as shown by the fact that it was awarded Best Picture, Best Story, Best Screenplay, Most Gender Sensitive Picture, as well as the texters' vote awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Actress.
Considering the numerous awards for Blue Moon, it is unusual that it did not get the jurors' nod for Best Director. What were the standards considered by the jurors for this category?
3) On Mulawin (co-produced by Regal Films with GMA Films): Mulawin was the only motion picture graded "A" by the Cinema Evaluation Board, and this grade recognized the superior acting in, and technical quality of the movie.
Despite this fact, Mulawin did not win a single award. Again, what standards were utilized by the MMFFP jurors, and how different were these from the standards applied by the Cinema Evaluation Board?
4) On comments made by an MMFFP juror: Regal is particularly disturbed by comments made by one juror, reported in the newspapers, praising the movie Kutob even before the awards night.
Considering that jurors are supposed to be neutral and unbiased, Regal would like to request an explanation from this juror on comments he made to the press, which seem to indicate bias and partiality.
My heart tells me to return the awards. This is how I felt last night out of anger. Not only was I deprived but also my colleagues involved in the creation of the motion pictures, Mulawin and Blue Moon (2006 film). However, Regal has been advised by its legal counsel that, pursuant to its contract and undertaking with the MMFFP at the time it joined the Film Festival, it is bound to honor and uphold the decision of the Awards Committee. Nevertheless, we believe that our concerns are critical and serious, and deserve discussion, debate, and consideration. As a producer, we serve the moviegoers who will appreciate the movies. The moviegoers are our ultimate judges of our accolades."

[edit] Recent Movies Released

[edit] 2004

[edit] 2005

[edit] 2006

[edit] 2007

  • The Promise (with GMA Films)
  • Happy Hearts
  • My Kuya's Wedding
  • Ang Nanay Kong Aswang (Mother's Day Presentation)
  • Desperadas
  • Atang Family
  • Anino
  • No Other Love

[edit] External links

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