If you were excited to see what Darna under Erik Matti would look like, save your breath: Matti has officially left the project.
ABS-CBN broke the sad news on Oct. 4. Citing creative differences, the media conglomerate announced that Matti was no longer working on the film as its director, but assured that the project was still pushing through.
Matti himself took to social media to give his own statement. “It’s been five years and how I wish I coud have finished it after all the hard work that went into preparing and putting it together. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out ideally for both parties,” he said in a Facebook post.
Rumors of him leaving the project had already started swirling before, especially when he let out this tweet last month.
I want to make films where every person that is part of the film is passionately invested in making sure we execute the story in the best way possible. I’m done making movies with people who don’t embrace the project seriously. Passion supercedes professionalism.
— Erik Matti (@ErikMatti) September 26, 2018
The Honor Thy Father and Buy Bust director had originally signed on to the project in 2013. Like many other Filipino moviegoers, I was excited to see how he was going to update the classic Filipino superhero story. This excitement intensified with every teaser released sporadically by the Darna team which promised a darker take on the superhero’s coming-of-age, keeping in with Matti’s style. I can’t say I’m not disappointed that a Matti-helmed Darna will never materialize.
Thankfully, Star Cinema softened the blow of Matti’s leaving by replacing him with pretty much the perfect person to take over the job, Jerrold Tarog.
Jerrold Tarog is the new director of ‘Darna.’ READ MORE DETAILS HERE: pic.twitter.com/6ZtCh4ncRZ
— ABS-CBN Corporation (@ABSCBN) October 5, 2018
A director whose films have stunning visuals and strong characters with a slightly cynical verve, Tarog was a wise choice to pick up where Matti left off.
Prior to this, netizens were already speculating that Jerrold Tarrog was replacing Matti, with many of them pointing to this cryptic tweet he posted after Matti’s announcement.
Welp. There goes my vacation.
— Jerrold Tarog (@JerroldTarog) October 4, 2018
You gotta hand it to these internet sleuths, they know their stuff.
Well, now that we know that Tarrog is taking over, I’ll be crossing my fingers for a Heneral Luna X Darna cinematic universe. (I may or may not believe that Darna is a true story.)
Featured photo courtesy of Erik Matti’s Instagram.
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