“Ang Panday” is a series of fantasy-action-adventure film from the early 1980’s which was based on the comic character created by Carlo J. Caparas and illustration by Steve Gan. “Panday” which literally means blacksmith, the job of the main character Flavio, formerly portrayed by the late Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ) hailed as the “King of Philippine Movies”, an actor/producer/director who run as a Presidential candidate in 2004 election and lost from the incumbent Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. But he was honored as Philippine National Artist in May 2006, almost 2 years after he died on December 14, 2004 at the age of 65. FPJ has done over 200 films and was considered as “the most influential Filipino actor of all-time”.
Four of the original Filipino film series were shown during the Metro Manila Film Festival. During the mid 1980’s, the first movie was turned into an animated TV series shown in RPN 9 station. It is the first full-length animation series ever done in the Philippines. The storyline of the original four-movie series was followed by two films titled “Dugo ng Panday” (Blood of the Blacksmith) in 1993 which starred Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. as Flavio and “Hiwaga ng Panday” (Mystery of Blacksmith) in 1998 with Jinggoy Estrada who took the lead role this time. Another Panday TV series were again made in 2005 aired in ABS CBN Channel 2 which featured the young hunk actor Jericho Rosales. The character role was also comically imitated by comedian Joey de Leon in one of his comedy films.
Just a trivia, Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada were both son of the politicians – former Senator Ramon Revilla Sr. and former President Joseph Estrada. Bong and Jinggoy are both incumbent Senators of the Philippine Government. Both use a screen name as celebrity which is often practiced in the Philippine entertainment industry.
Senator Bong Revilla did another sequel of the movie this year, again portraying the title role Flavio, a blacksmith who picked up a metal from a meteor shower one night and formed it into a dagger but when he raises it into the sky, it turns into a magical sword which he uses to fight the evil Lizardo and other evil creatures.
Lizardo was a notorious villain reincarnated by an evil spirit whose character was originally portrayed by the late award-winning actor, Max Alvarado and later by Edu Manzano. This time, it’s Phillip Salvador who even shaved his head to give the antagonist a new look.
Other casts in the new Panday movie are actresses Iza Calzado (who also did international films) and Rhian Ramos as the leading ladies. Comedians Benjie Paras, John Lapus, and Gladys Guevarra were also in the film together with young stars Geoff Eigenmann, Paulo Avelino and Stef Prescott. Former body-building champion Carlo Morales and child star Robert “Buboy” Villar are also in the film.
The movie’s press conference was held on the 17th floor of GMA Network Center last April 16, 2009. It was set to compete for this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival as what was traditionally done before. This film is a joint project of GMA Films, the film production firm of GMA Network which also owns one of the two largest TV station in the Philippines; and Imus Production, a family-owned film production company established by Ramon Revilla Sr. Two prominent film directors Mac Alejandre and Rico Gutierrez directed the film which will be shown December 25, 2009.
Senator Bong doesn’t want to boast about the film, he just said that the film had used some high tech special effects and after watching the movie, Filipinos can be proud to say that we can also make such kind of movie.
Source: en.wikipedia.org, gmanews.tv
