MARIA, the latest action film of director Pedring Lopez (Nilalang, Binhi, Darkroom) has recently been acquired by Netflix for global release on May 17, 2019. Maria is an action film with a strong female lead starring Christine Reyes.
Director Pedring Lopez‘ Nilalang (Entity) has won numerous international awards including Best Director at the Los Angeles Philippine Film Festival and Festival Internacional de Cine Fantastico de Torremolinos. Maria stars Cristine Reyes in her almost dual role as Lily and Maria. It is the story of a cartel assassin who refuses a mission only to find herself the target of the cartel’s merciless retaliation. Cristine Reyes, though it is only her first action film, does her own stunts featuring traditional Filipino martial arts and claims that this is her most difficult and challenging role in her long and lustrous career. The film has been getting wide critical acclaim for it’s acting, direction, stunts and cinematography.
“Maria’s triumph… is in its meticulous crafting, in its fealty to the tropes of the genre, in its dogged desire to keep its audience on the edge of their seats without need of any ulterior advocacy.”
Rappler (https://www.rappler.com/entertainment/ movies/227037-maria-review)
“But the thing that really blew us away was the film’s execution of its action scenes. The gunfights are bloody. The hand-to-hand combats are brutal. There’s guts and gore at every encounter.
Movies For Millennials (https:// moviesformillennials.com/f/maria-movie-review-bloody- good-fun)
“Lopez keeps his cautionary tale consistently viewable by showing proficiently paced and choreographed fight scenes when his film isn’t stubbornly plugging into the country’s sociopolitical zeitgeist.”
INQUIRER (https://entertainment.inquirer.net/324514/ cristine-packs-a-mighty-punch#ixzz5kGvLAvKR)
“This was one hell of a jaw-dropping, no-holds-barred action film. The violence was all-out and in-your-face, challenging the limits of its rating. The shock value started from the very first action sequence, and later was sustained with various mercilessly sadistic ways to kill people.”
Maria is written by Pedring Lopez, Yz Carbonell and Rex Lopez and also stars Ivan Padilla, KC Montero, Guji Lorenzana, Jennifer Lee, Andrea del Rosario, Cindy Miranda, Freddie Webb and Ronnie Lazaro. Maria is produced by VIVA Films, BlackOps Studios Asia, and PsyOps8.
