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As of now, Ate Guy is still very active on the big screen with the indie films she’s doing. “Hustisya” just won her another best actress award and it’s being shown in filmfests abroad, but it has yet to have a commercial theatrical release locally. Her movie “Dementia” is now being in theatres but the box office take is dismal. Now, if this became a blockbuster, we can be assured that more producers would be interested in her. Where oh where are the rabid Noranians who were fighting tooth and nail to make her a National Artist? How come they didn’t go watch her movie?
Right now, she’s doing another prestige project for Director Dante Mendoza who helmed her in “They Womb” that also gave her more acting awards. Their new film is “Yolanda”, currently being filmed in Tacloban about the fate of the residents there who suffered from last year’s killer typhoon. This is being produced by Sen. Loren Legarda.
What happened to Ate Guy also holds true for Sharon Cuneta and Aga Muhlach, who were signed up by TV5 with very extravagant talent fees, pinning hopes on them that they will help TV5 to be a to rater. As we all know, this did not happen. The shows they did as a Kapatid also didn’t translate into high ratings. Sharon didn’t finish her contract anymore and asked to be release.
Aga’s contract has expired. We heard he’s willing to renew it, but he wants it on a guaranteed contract basis, meaning: he’d be paid whether he has a show or not. But TV5 didn’t bite this time, so he was replaced by Ogie Alcasid in hosting “Let’s Talk Pilipinas”. We all know there’s truth in the saying “lahat ay lumilipas”. Ate Guy, Ate Shawie and Aga should still somehow be thankful that they have relatively long shelf lives compared to other stars who quickly faded away, especially Aga who was even paired with much younger leading ladies in rom-coms, until recently. As to where their careers will go now depend on the network who’ll be willing to gamble on them now that they’re past their prime. Their best bets is to star in a TV series that will rate really high and successfully rekindle the public’s interest in them. They can take a cue from Maricel Soriano, who successfully made a comeback via GMA-7’s hit “Ang Dalawang Mrs Real”.
The same goes for Richard Gutierrez with GMA Films. He still has a guaranteed contract with them and he has to be paid P5 million whether or not GMA would still do the movies he’s contracted to do with them. The contract was signed when Richard’s star was still shining brightly and he was doing hits like “Let the Love Begin” and “My Girlfriend’s Best Friend”. It’s common knowledge that Chard’s career is currently in the doldrums (look at what happened to his movie “Overtime”) and his only exposure these days is in E Channel’s “It Takes Gutz to be a Gutierrez”. He really needs a good career plan and a network that will be willing to help put him back on top once more. Let’s face it, the lifeblood of showbiz is the introduction of new younger stars that the public will adore. The older stars will still be around, particularly if they have a prestigious reputation and prodigious talent. They will still be on their own pedestal, very much respected for past achievements, but it will forever be the younger stars who would be the main and present attraction.
The careers of stars whose lights have somewhat dimmed are really more dependent on TV these days. There’s nothing like having a string of hit teleseryes. Movies are made few and far between and only Star Cinema succeeds in scoring a lot of hits since they have the entire ABS-CBN of TV trailers. GMA Films used to be very active but after suffering from a string of misses, they’ve since stopped producing new movies. We heard GMA Films would soon be revived with new people managing it, so let’s see if they could come up with new hits to put the Kapuso network’s film arm back into serious contention once again.