Coleen Garcia and Loisa Andalio are set to play the leads in an e-sports-centric film.

Mikhail Red focuses on the exciting world of competitive gaming in his movie Friendly Fire. The tale revolves around an inventive businesswoman starting a new e-sports team in the Philippines.

Red discussed the venture with Variety while serving on the international jury at the 2023 Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema.

“It’s not your usual crime thriller that most of my films are, it’s something fresh for me and exciting. I like to think of it as my most wholesome project, because it’s more inspirational and it’s a genre I’ve always wanted to try — the sports movie and the underdog sports story,” Red said.

“E-sports is becoming quite big, especially in the Philippines, and there’s this stigma and the lack of support,” added Red. “It’s very new and it’s something that a lot of people still don’t understand”, hence it’s “interesting to follow the lives of these e-sports athletes” who are “handicapped” in terms of resources, support, and even internet speed.

In the Philippines, internet cafes are a dying industry; Friendly Fire is partially set in one of these establishments. According to Red, the movie will have a “rags-to-riches career fantasy journey” and adhere to the conventions of a classic boxing plot.

Ten17p, who also created Arisaka for Red, is the producer of Friendly Fire.

With the assistance of Respeto director Treb Monteras II as showrunner and Los Angeles-based writer Kaitlyn Fae Fajilan, Red is also at work on the live-action series version of Dreamwalker, starring Kate Valdez.

Evolve Studios, the director’s new production firm, has just been established. Its first movie, Nokturno, reunites Red with actress Nadine Lustre, who starred in Deleter and won the MMFF 2022 Best Actress award.

The sci-fi horror film Helel, about a Filipina astronaut who meets the devil on her voyage, is up next.