Awarded film director Mikhail Red is braving new frontiers, setting up his own Evolve Studios in collaboration with Viva.
According to Mikhail, he had long wanted to start his studio only that he had a hard time looking for suitable collaborators.
He said, “To be honest, I’ve received similar offers before but I decided to finally go with Viva because they are allowing me space to exercise my creativity. Wala silang restrictions. And for an artist like me, that freedom is very welcome.”
“Viva knows great talent when it sees one and with our partnership with direk Mikhail Red, we hope to future-proof our content offerings across genres and over different platforms,” says Valerie Del Rosario, Senior Vice President for Content Creation and Development for Viva Communications, Inc.
She made clear they have been thinking of the partnership with Mikhail even before the success of their first effort together, “Deleter,” now considered the highest grossing Filipino horror film of all time.
Mikhail admitted “Deleter” proved the clincher.
“We really connected with our vision in creating genre films for a wide audience. After the success of ‘Deleter’ we saw the potential of a strong partnership to continuously create quality genre films to reach the new growing audience whose viewing habits have changed due to globalization and rise of international streaming platforms. Viva believed and trusted my vision and voice,” says Mikhail.
Mikhail is hardly a new voice in Pinoy cinema.
His first feature film, “Rekorder,” which had its international premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival, won several international awards including the Best Director prize at the 2014 Vancouver International Film Festival.
His second film, “Birdshot,” won the Doha Film Institute Grant and CJ Entertainment Award at Busan during its development.
“Birdshot” went on to win at the Tokyo International Film Festival and was later selected as the Philippine entry to the Academy Awards. It was also the first Filipino film to be internationally distributed on Netflix.
Three of his other films—“Eerie,” “Dead Kids,” “Arisaka”—were also acquired by Netflix, with “Dead Kids” being the first Filipino Original on the global platform.
Asked to share details ast to what exactly it is that he wants to achieve with Evolve Studios, Mikhail related, “We will tackle Filipino stories with exciting plots and imaginative ideas. We will take wild swings, aim for spectacle and fresh concepts, yet ground them in sustainable and feasible production. Our films aim to be accessible and exciting to the everyday Filipino audience and will have the craft, production value, and sensibilites for international export as well. We plan to distribute theatrically across the region or partner with the growing influx of international streamers that are looking for strong genre titles in our region.”
Evolve’s initial titles for 2023 include “Nokturno,” a film about a primal and supernatural curse that haunts a rural Filipino family starring Nadine Lustre.
Then there’s “Helel,” a sci-fi spiritual horror film about a Filipina astronaut who encounters the devil.
