Manila Goes Hollywood!

I'm sure if one looked, one could easily find a list of movies made in Hollywood that,in one fashion or another involved the Philippines as a location, whether these films were set or merely shot in the Philippines. Oliver Stone's Vietnam War epics Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July were shot here, though the Philippines doubled for Vietnam. Lately there have been some notable American movies featuring the Philippines as the Philippines, such as John Dahl's The Great Raid, starring Cesar Montano, James Franco and Benjamin Bratt, and John Sayles' Amigo, starring Joel Torre and Chris Cooper, but both of them were basically ignored by mainstream audiences around the world. So by and large, as far as Hollywood productions goes, the Philippines remains basically a double for other countries, or an obscure reference by one character or another. Universal Pictures' upcoming release The Bourne Legacy, however, looks to remedy that unfortunate lack of awareness. This is a movie which will actually be SET, albeit only partially, in Manila, the capital of the Philippines. In keeping with the Bourne series' globetrotting nature, the Philippines will serve as the latest exotic destination for the highly successful film franchise, which has, in the past, given ample exposure to countries which, to a Westerner, would be far off, like India in the second movie and Morocco in the third. It's a shame this installment this film won't star Matt Damon, but with Academy-Award-nominated director Tony Gilroy, screenwriter of all the previous Bourne movies, at the helm, the film is assured of narrative integrity, and with Jeremy Renner (who's been in a couple of major action tentpoles since his breakout role in The Hurt Locker) appearing in the lead, this film is assured of A-list pedigree, a first for a film featuring the Philippines as an integral part of its setting. It's not easy for me, a fan of the Bourne film series, to root for a film with "Bourne" in its title yet without Jason Bourne in it, but seeing the preview, Tony Gilroy's efforts to tie this movie to everything that came before it, and the wonderfully prominent role of Metro Manila, it's a pill that's just become that much easier to swallow.