{"id":64167,"date":"2025-08-12T14:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T14:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/64167\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T14:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T14:28:08","slug":"filipino-filmmaker-pedring-lopez-will-direct-uk-set-horror-the-ascendants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/64167\/","title":{"rendered":"Filipino Filmmaker Pedring Lopez Will Direct UK-Set Horror \u2018The Ascendants\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Filipino filmmaker <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/pedring-lopez\/\" id=\"auto-tag_pedring-lopez\" data-tag=\"pedring-lopez\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pedring Lopez<\/a> (Netflix\u2019s Maria, Nilalang) is set to direct The Ascendants, a psychological horror feature from Silent D Pictures. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe film will begin production in early 2026 in the UK, and stars Australian actors Cristian Lavin and John Jarratt and US-born Indonesian actress Chelsea Islan. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tLavin also penned the film\u2019s screenplay. Additional casting for The Ascendants will be announced in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tThe film follows a journalist who returns to her childhood mining town in search of her missing brother \u2014 only to uncover a cult, sacred rites, and a blood-soaked ancestral legacy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tLopez is currently shooting his <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2025\/05\/qymira-yoshi-sudarso-pedring-lopez-shadow-transit-1236391755\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">English-language debut feature<\/a>, Shadow Transit, which stars UK-based singer-songwriter Qymira and Indonesian actor Yoshi Sudarso. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tPrincipal photography is taking place in Manila, with several scenes shot in Hong Kong. The film will be presented to buyers at the American Film Market.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tAfter The Ascendants, Lopez will direct and line produce action-horror Blood Passage, produced by GFM Film Sales and Evolution Pictures (UK), VeryTay Media (Singapore), Shaw Organisation (Singapore) and BlackOps Studios Asia (<a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/philippines\/\" id=\"auto-tag_philippines\" data-tag=\"philippines\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Philippines<\/a>). <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tBlood Passage will be shot entirely in the Philippines, primarily on the remote islands of Camarines Sur.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tLopez was also showrunner and director of Filipino prison crime series Sellblock, executive produced and distributed globally by LA-based Blue Fox Entertainment. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t\u201cAs a Filipino filmmaker making my crossover into international cinema, I\u2019ve always been drawn to stories that wrestle with faith, trauma, and inherited myth,\u201d said Lopez. \u201cWith The Ascendants, I\u2019m bringing my Southeast Asian roots and cinematic language to a Western storyworld \u2014 one grounded in atmosphere, tension, and emotional truth. This is the kind of film that lets me explore universal fears through a very personal lens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lavin added: \u201cPedring brings a rare mix of emotional insight and genre precision. He knows how to shape horror through performance, atmosphere, and meaning \u2014 not just effects.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tDjonny Chen, founder of Silent D Pictures, said: \u201cWe\u2019re thrilled to collaborate with Pedring. His work consistently blends bold vision with grounded humanity. The Ascendants is the kind of project that demands that \u2014 and he\u2019s the right voice to deliver it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Filipino filmmaker Pedring Lopez (Netflix\u2019s Maria, Nilalang) is set to direct The Ascendants, a psychological horror feature&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[879,49,48,75,337,41187,2053],"class_list":{"0":"post-64167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-pedring-lopez","14":"tag-philippines"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}