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Cult Filipino filmmaker Mikhail Red is deep in post-production on action thriller ‘Arisaka.’ The shoot was temporarily delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic and following Covid-safe production protocols, principal photography was completed in the third quarter of 2020.

News of the film was first announced by Variety during the Singapore Media Festival’s Southeast Asian Film Financing Project Market in 2019.

Variety has been given exclusive access to the first teaser for the film.

In “Arisaka,” a policewoman must retrace the trail of the Bataan Death March, a forcible transfer of some 60,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war by the Imperial Japanese army during WWII, in order to escape her captors. The film is named after a World War II Japanese bolt-action rifle.

The cast includes Maja Salvador (“Thelma”) and Mon Confiado (“Heneral Luna”).

Philippines production house Ten17P, which has credits including Lav Diaz’s “A Lullaby To The Sorrowful Mystery,” Paul Soriano...

Cult Filipino filmmaker, Mikhail Red will direct “Arisaka,” a film named after a World War II Japanese bolt-action rifle. “It’s a Western based on a famous massacre that happened in the Philippines,” Red told Variety.

Philippines production house Ten17P, whose credits include Lav Diaz’s “A Lullaby To The Sorrowful Mystery” and Paul Soriano’s “Mananita,” will produce.

Red is in Singapore to pitch Japan-Philippines sci-fi project “Quantum Suicide” at ScreenSingapore’s Southeast Asian Film Financing Project Market. He is also all set to direct the third season of “Halfworlds” for HBO Asia and Cignal TV. The first season was set in Indonesia and the second in Thailand, while the third will be shot in the Philippines from January through May. It stars popular actress Bianca Umali (“Banal”).

“I will be playing the role of Alex, the lead role in the series,” Umali told Variety. “I don’t know...

HBO Asia has given the green light to a third season of fantasy action series “Halfworlds.” The eight-part season will be directed by rising star Philippines filmmaker Mikhail Red.

Production will begin from January, with the completed season to screen exclusively on HBO and HBO Go later in 2020. Season 3 is produced by HBO Asia in partnership with Cignal TV.

HBO said that “Halfworlds” now becomes its longest running original show from Asia. And it will be the first to shoot entirely in The Philippines.

It will be led by Filipino stars Bianca Umali (Sahaya; Barbi D’ Wonder Beki) and Sam Concepcion, and also involve returning cast from the previous seasons.

The updated story relocates from Bangkok to the gun-stricken streets of Manila, where blood thirsty creatures known as Engkangtos live out in the open among humans. Alex, who is half-human and half creature, seeks original source of the dwindling haven...