buy bust

BUYBUST: Anne Curtis Bodes With A Killing Stare On The First Official Poster

One of the biggest and hotly-anticipated titles to hit the festival floor this summernow comes branded with an official first poster. Thus, it’s got actress Anne Curtis emitting brutal imagery reflective of the harrowing story that is BuyBust from director Erik Matti and with screenings readying for Fantasia in Montreal and at Neuchatel in Switzerland, as well as in New York City for its closing premeire at NYAFF soon: After two decades making erotica, fantasy, horror, thrillers and a superhero comedy, Erik Matti directs his first all-out action film. And it’s relentless, featuring 309 stuntmen, 1,278 extras, and a wildly ambitious three-minute, one-cut action scene in which superstar Anne Curtis fights back hordes of thugs across rain-drenched rooftops. Curtis stars as Nina, a rookie police officer on a doomed buy-bust operation with an elite anti-narcotic squad. Matching The Raid and The Villainess in scope and body count, the director of […]

BUYBUST: Erik Matti Hails The Last Days Of Filming With An Explosive And Brutal Featurette

Lee B. Golden III

Filmmaker Erik Matti’s latest thriller, BuyBust, has endured a strenuous near-two year journey from inception to its approaching completion with lead actress Anne Curtis and MMA champion Brandon Vera starring. With an official release date pending and the heralded director of thrillers like On The Job and Kubot: The Aswang Chronicles, took to social media on Thursday to reflect on the production in a lengthy post. It’s a worthy read as well considering what it takes these days to get an ambitious action production in the Philippines off the ground. The greivances are valid, too, often pertaining to financing and politics overall despite the local talent pool that exists and otherwise lives and breathes to partake in a genre that speaks to international audiences at the least. Indeed, further plot and story specifics are scant regarding the film, but Matti’s testimony certainly speak to my own observations on past projects […]

Erik Matti's BUY BUST In Pre-Production With FMA Training Underway

Lee B. Golden III

Filipino action cinema still has its hurdles nowadays, and some of it is still much ado with the unwillingness to take certain risks to help bolster such films from the region. Fortunately that hasn’t hindered the earned acclaim by filmmakers like Erik Matti (On The Job, Honor Thy Father, Erik Matti, The Aswang Chronicles) who is reportedly pivoting to the martial arts genre with his own contribution. For this, we look to two new training videos now online featuring MMA fighter Brandon Vera and local actress Anne Curtis who are set to star on Matti’s latest, Buy Bust. Screen Anarchy‘s Todd Brown forwarded the latest updates via the Reality Entertainment Facebook with Vera and Curtis undergoing Pekiti-Tirsia Kali ahead of next month’s more solid rehearsals ahead of the film’s production in November, and with the prospects of performing the action themselves with out stunt doubles. That ought to be an […]