GMA Pictures, Viva Films strengthen partnership

GMA Pictures has just renewed its partnership with Viva Films.

Present during the contract signing were GMA Network Films Inc. president and programming consultant to the chairman and CEO Atty. Annette Gozon-Valdes; GMA Network first vice president for program management Jose Mari R. Abacan; and assistant vice president for corporate communications Jojo Aquio; and Viva Communications chairman and CEO Vicente del Rosario Jr.; president and COO Vincent del Rosario; Viva Artists Agency president and COO Veronique del Rosario-Corpus; and SVP for content creation and development Valerie del Rosario.

The partnership involves a multi-picture deal which both GMA and Viva aim to expand in more platforms.

According to GMA Films president Annette Gozon-Valdes, GMA and Viva have created many projects together as longtime partners.

“We’ve done a lot of movies in the past together and also sa TV marami na rin tayong nagawa with Viva and all have been successful,” she said.

“Whenever we work with Viva it’s always a joy, everything runs very smoothly, so we love partnering with them. This new joint venture agreement just strengthens our partnership,” she added.

“We hope to be able to give the viewers quality movies and especially now that the theaters are starting to open and people are starting to miss going to the cinemas to watch movies, we will be able to give them new movies with new casting combinations. So hintayin lang nila ’yun.”

Viva’s “Boss Vic” Vicente del Rosario Jr. said the companies hoped to release a minimum of three films this year, adding that they’re looking to extend the collaboration beyond those releases.

“It’s good that we have finalized a new agreement,” said Boss Vic.

“We have done a lot of films with GMA, all are successful. This is just a continuation of that previous joint venture with them,” he added.

“This is a very strong partnership and hopefully we’ll make a lot of good movies combining the great talents of GMA and Viva.”

Vincent del Rosario, meanwhile, expressed excitement for the partnership.

“Very excited with the partnership, obviously we’ve been working together with GMA for a long time. But I think the exciting part is being able to work with friends like Annette and Joey because we have the same creative wavelength and hopefully this partnership is the start of many that we’ll be doing together on different fronts. Salamat Annette, salamat Joey for the trust in Viva,” he said.

Viva Artists’ Veronique del Rosario mentioned exciting possible movie pairings between GMA and Viva artists, such as Nadine Lustre and Ruru Madrid and Sanya Lopez and Marco Gumabao, among other potential matches.

“’Yung combination ng stars ng Viva at GMA, I think ’yun ’yung talagang excited kami,” she said.

“Matagal na kaming nagco-co-produce ng Viva, and pinalalakas lang namin kung ano man ang meron kami,” said GMA’s Jose Mari Abacan.

“It has been a partnership that’s [started] a long time ago and natutuwa ako dahil mabubuksan muli ang partnership na ito. I hope that through this collaboration we can create more quality movies for our beloved viewers,” he added.

“Maraming possibilities na pwedeng mangyari with the partnership,” said Viva’s Valerie del Rosario. – RC, GMA News