TBA Studios has announced that its highly-anticipated biographical historical movie “Quezon” is set for production this year with a target theatrical release later this year.
“Quezon” marks the continuation of TBA Studios’ cinematic “Bayaniverse”—a series of films based on Philippine history that includes box office hits “Heneral Luna” and “Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral.” It is also the company’s first major film production since 2020, after bringing award-winning international films such as the Academy Award-winning “Everything, Everywhere All At Once” and “Past Lives”, and the Dolly de Leon-starrer “Triangle of Sadness” to Philippine theaters as a distributor.
Filming for “Quezon” is set to start in March 2025.
The movie is expected to follow the life of Manuel L. Quezon, a Filipino lawyer and soldier who became the President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1935 to 1944, highlighting his tumultuous presidential campaign against then-President Emilio Aguinaldo.
According to TBA Studios President and COO Daphne Chiu, “Quezon” will be released both locally and worldwide. She added that the film will be produced as a stand-alone—a movie that exists within the same cinematic continuity of TBA Studios’ beloved historical films “Heneral Luna” and “Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral”, but will be made accessible to moviegoers who have not seen the earlier films.
Jerrold Tarog, the director and co-writer of “Heneral Luna” and “Goyo: Ang Batang Heneral,” is set to return to helm “Quezon.”
The film is supported by the Philippine government agency National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), the latter announcing last year a funding support for the movie. This landmark partnership signals a shared goal between TBA Studios, NCCA, and FDCP to further strengthen the local film industry by delivering and promoting world-class films.
Casting for the movie’s major and supporting roles is currently underway and will be announced soon. Chiu teases that the cast will feature names that will surprise and excite audiences and hardcore fans of the Bayaniverse alike.
TBA Studios made its mark in the Philippine film industry with the box-office and critical success of “Quezon’s” historical film predecessors—with “Heneral Luna” earning the title as the Philippines’ highest-grossing historical film of all time during its record-breaking theatrical run in 2015 and the Philippines’ official entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards.