Felix Manalo

Felix Manalo (2015)

Felix Yzagun Manalo is a sprawling historical epic that traces the origin of Iglesia Ni Cristo (The Church of Christ) which is established in the Philippines from its humble beginnings in 1914 through the present day.

Date of release
2015-10-04
TMDB
3.7 / 10 (3)
Runtime
2h 58m
Genres
History, War, Drama
Director
Joel Lamangan

Casting

Interesting facts

Felix Manalo is a 2015 Filipino biographical film about the life of Felix Manalo, the first Executive Minister of the Iglesia ni Cristo, and the church he preached. Manalo is regarded by the members of the Iglesia ni Cristo as the last messenger of God and the restorer of the true Church of Christ, whom the INC gives the title Sugò. The story and screenplay were written by INC evangelism head Bienvenido Santiago. The film was directed by Joel Lamangan. All content of the film was screened and approved by the INC.

Production

Joel Lamangan served as the overall director of the film with Armando Reyes as the assistant director, and Glicerio Santos III as the creative producer. The production design was done by Edgar Martin Littaua, Joel Marcelo Bilbao and Daniel Red.

About one hundred actors were included in the cast, while 8,000 people were hired as extras. Scenes were shot in Metro Manila, Laguna, Subic, and Bataan. This includes the INC Chapel F. Manalo (formerly Riverside) in San Juan, and the chapel in San Francisco del Monte, Quezon City, which was used in the funeral. Laguna de Bay stood in for the Pasig River in the baptism scenes.

Initially, Richard Gomez, Albert Martinez and Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. were tapped to play Felix Manalo, Eraño Manalo and Eduardo Manalo, respectively. However, Gomez and Revilla would later drop out of the project. Bong Revilla, who is also an incumbent Senator at that time, withdrew after he got implicated in the PDAF scam reasoning that it would be shameful to portray a religious leader when he himself is riddled with political controversy.

Martinez would then be cast in the role of Felix Manalo, with Dennis Trillo playing a younger Felix Manalo. Martinez also withdrew following the death of his wife, Liezl Martinez. Trillo would go on to play both the young and old Felix Manalo.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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