‘On the Job’ to get mini-series on Hooq

MANILA, Philippines – A new mini-series based on Erik Matti’s acclaimed 2013 crime thriller On the Job (OTJ) will soon make its way to streaming service Hooq.

It is going to be the first Filipino original content produced for the platform, which is available in the Philippines, Thailand, India, and Indonesia.

The six-part mini-series, as Interaksyon’s Edwin P. Sallan reported, is a joint production between Hooq, Globe Telecom, and Reality Entertainment, the film production outfit formed by director Erik Matti and producer Dondon Monteverde. (READ: The odyssey of ‘OTJ’)

According to the same report, Hooq Philippines country manager Jane Cruz-Walker told the press at a briefing last June 2 that production commences this month. The finished series will possibly be available to all Hooq subscribers by the fourth quarter of this year.

The original 2013 film starred A-list actors, and followed characters like Piolo Pascual’s Francis Coronel, Jr, an NBI agent married to a corrupt congressman’s daughter. Joel Torre starred as Tatang, a veteran killer-for-hire, who took on a protégé, Daniel, played by Gerald Anderson. (WATCH: Piolo, Gerald and Joel on the job)

Matti also shared at the press briefing that the characters who died in the film such as Pascual and Anderson are unlikely to reprise their roles in the mini-series, except “maybe as a ghost.”

GMA News reported that a few familiar faces will appear in the mini-series, and will be helmed by Matti himself with screenwriter Michiko Yamamoto returning.

“Hooq allows us to expand the world and the characters that we started in the original On The Job movie,” Matti said about the upcoming mini-series. “During our initial brainstorming with Hooq, we came out with six to seven storylines for OTJ alone.”

“The series will have an angle involving a cop, a convict turned assassin, and a new story angle which will focus on media in the Philippines and will also cover social media, video platforms, radio and all those things. There is going to be one big story that is going to erupt in the media industry and that’s where the killings started.”

While the initial series is slated to have only six episodes, Hooq sees it as a “potential franchise.” Hooq chief executive officer Bithos told the press, as quoted by Interaksyon: “There are so many possibilities for OTJ, so many stories we can tell.”

In 2013, OTJ premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, where it received a standing ovation. Among several accolades it received, the film won the Jury Prize and Best Actor for Joel Torre at the same year’s Puchon International Fantastic Film Fest. – Rappler.com