Ex-Pinoy Big Brother Gen 11 contestant JM Ibarra has landed his first lead-actor film assignment. But then he is not paired in the movie with on-screen sweetheart Fyang Smith (who seems to have become his real-life girlfriend, too).

Both stars are managed by ABS-CBN since the show where they were discovered is produced by the TV station as the Philippine franchise holder of the global reality contest whose final winners emerge from viewers’ texted votes. (Smith, a Fil-Am born and raised in the Philippines, is the grand winner in the show’s 2024 edition in which Ibarra was the last evicted. “Fyang” is Smith’s very Pinoy nickname from her first real name Sophia.) 

Ibarra’s recently announced film project is mysteriously titled Child No.82. 

When we received the invite to the film’s media launch without a word about what the movie deals with, we thought it was about the maternity ward of a hospital and the upcoming actor portrays a young handsome pediatrician.

No, Ibarra is not a medic in the movie in which Smith is not even in the cast. 

At the media launch held at Luxent Hotel in Timog Avenue Quezon City, we learned that the movie is about a wildly famous Pinoy action-fantasy movie actor who has more than 80 children. Ibarra portrays a senior high school student who is allegedly the 82nd son of the extraordinarily virile actor who dies mysteriously but leaves behind enough money to distribute among his numerous children most of whom were born out of wedlock.

The film’s storyline has several urgencies and complications. One urgency is: the mother of the 82nd child learns about the availability of inheritance for her son on the last day of showing up at the actor’s wake with proof and papers that the young man is indeed the dead actor’s son.

The young man has to beat the midnight deadline of turning up at the wake which has a long, long queue of fans and claimants as the dead actor’s children. Could he beat the deadline? 

The film is a fiction comedy and one complication is that the 82nd child badly needs so much cash because his girlfriend is pregnant and due to give birth soon.

A fellow PBB product, Kai Montinola, was at the media launch and she vaguely announced that she has been signed up to portray a sister of Ibarra in the film. Sorry, she can’t play the pregnant sweetheart!

There’s a buzz that Kai or any actress her age (18) is not allowed yet to be cast as Ibarra’s sweetheart in any project since ABS-CBN has launched the Fang-JM loveteam, and the career plan for the tandem includes some movies. If ABS-CBN signed up Ibarra to Child No. 82, it’s most likely because the movie will be released in October yet--and only in limited number of theaters.

And, oh, the child-making factory in the narrative is portrayed by Vhong Navarro. For some sane and silly reasons, we think he’s perfect for the outlandish character. 

The film also stars Rochelle Pangilinan, Vance Larena, Irma Adlawan, Iya Mina, Che Ramos, Donna Cariaga, Dexter Doria, and vlogger Zairene Fernandez.