Would another Pinoy film dare show in theaters in mid-November this year alongside Hello, Love, Again?

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, that’s the movie re-teaming Kathryn Bernardo and Alden Richards as a much-awaited sequel to their Hello, Love, Goodbye in 2019, which became the Philippines’ highest-grossing film until Rewind of real-life couple Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes came along last year as a Metro Manila Film Fest entry. 

A most likely added attraction to the sequel Hello, Love, Again is the possibility that by the time the film is showing Bernardo and Richards have become sweethearts in real life — and admit it to the Pinoy multitude. 

Bernardo, who broke off with actor Daniel Padilla last year after an 11-year real-life romance, has been accommodating Richards to her family events. He was at her 28th birthday celebration out-of-town.  

The GMA 7’s prize bachelor actor is reported to have canceled one long-scheduled commitment to attend a family affair birthday gathering at Bernardo’s house. He was there again recently to join a send-off bash for a brother of Bernardo who was going to work abroad.

At the brief media huddle on Sunday (19 May) at ABS-CBN to announce the much-awaited making of the sequel, Bernardo revealed that Star Cinema, her mother studio, notified her sometime after the showing of her most recent film, A Very Good Girl, that she and Richards were going to do the sequel to Hello, Love, Goodbye. That could mean even Richards had been notified about the sequel. They may have been instructed by their respective managers not to reveal the sequel project yet. But they were allowed to see each other as often as they could for as long as there was an occasion that could justify that kind of dalliance.

Unlike in their first pairing in which Richards was just “borrowed” from GMA-7, their re-team up is a collaboration between Star Cinema and GMA Pictures (which used to be known as GMA Films). It could mean both entities are bank-rolling the sequel. Richards said at the media huddle that it’s the first collaboration for a film between GMA-7 and ABS-CBN.

The collaboration could also mean GMA-7 can impose that some of their Sparkle stars be cast in the sequel. The network, after all, has been aggressively promoting their Sparkle stars through one kind of event or another. Just a few days ago, the Kapuso network launched its newly signed Sparkle stars.

At the sequel’s media huddle, no co-stars were announced. Star Cinema and GMA Pictures could be in the midst of negotiations now did the also-starring cast. Talent fee negotiations for major roles from each camp could be “bloody”!