For Erik Matti, Call My Manager is more than a comedy about the people behind the careers of celebrities. It is a tribute to the Philippine entertainment industry — a world Matti and much of the cast know well.

Matti told the DAILY TRIBUNE at an HBO Max press junket recently that the series gave him an opportunity to explore comedy after years of working in crime, horror and action.

“One of my favorite genres was comedy,” Matti said. “When the opportunity came that we were going to adapt it, it made us want to tackle the comedy as excitingly as possible.”

But the project also took time to develop, according to the 55-year-old director.

“We developed the script quite extensively, and it was fun,” he added. “It was fun to show the industry that we love in a different light.”

That “different light” is at the heart of Call My Manager, which puts talent managers at the center of the showbiz world.

The series stars Judy Ann Santos as Andrea Manuel, Edu Manzano as Matthew Buenaventura, RK Bagatsing as Gabriel Soler, Gina Alajar as Aleta Alfonso, Christiana Zaleta as Camille Vergara and Raf Pineda as Chin Joaquin, with Matti as director.

A Filipino take on a French hit

Call My Manager is the Philippine adaptation of the French series Dix pour cent, known internationally as Call My Agent!. The original was created by Fanny Herrero from an idea by former talent agent Dominique Besnehard, Michel Vereecken and Julien Messemackers. It premiered on France 2 in 2015 and later gained an international audience through Netflix.

The format has also received adaptations in other countries, including Canada, Turkey, India, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Italy. For Matti, however, the Filipino version had to reflect the culture where its story takes place.

“The difference here is the culture,” Matti said. “You will see the Filipino culture.”

Where the comedy comes from

Matti said the local talent-management system has a different character from the more corporate approach seen in other versions.

“The other countries would usually be very corporate,” he said. “But here, the way our talent agencies would work is everything is personal. Everything is about being emotional.”

That emotional quality, Matti said, creates both complications and comic possibilities.

“And that creates a lot of problems,” he said. “But at the same time, a lot of fun for us to mine in the plots and the characters.”

The humor also comes from the contrast between the seriousness of people inside the industry and how their conversations may look from the outside.

“There are instances that everyone is serious,” he said. “But when you watch it, what are they saying? It’s so funny. The situation is so funny. But they’re all so serious about it.”

“That’s how it is in the business,” he added. “Sometimes we just talk and you think we’re serious. Very emotional.”

Then comes his blunt assessment: “But when you look at it from the outside, what are they talking about? They’re just a bunch of weirdos,” he joked.

Looking beyond the stars

Matti also said Call My Manager offers a different view of the entertainment industry by putting talent managers at the center.

“We have seen a lot of movies already dealing with the entertainment industry,” he said. “But most of them fall short. Fall short in the sense that sometimes it’s not real anymore.”

Matti said he wanted the series to offer audiences a closer look at the people who work behind the stars.

“When you actually look at the lives of the managers, dealing with people like us, they have more color in their lives,” he said.

“It’s nice that now we’re giving people a chance, some insight into what the life of the manager requires and how they get to build the careers of their talents.”

A love letter to the industry

The personal connection to Philippine showbiz also runs through the cast and the filmmakers.

“From the outset, when we decided to do the adaptation of the French series, it was really a chance to pay tribute to a world we really love,” Matti said.

For Matti, the series means more than just another project.

“You don’t know how emotional this is for us,” he said. “For others, it might be just another show. But if we look at what we did for the episodes, for the scripts, and for the nuances, the characters that we brought in, it is very emotional for us. Because it’s a love letter to the industry that we grew up with.”

That idea also informs Matti’s approach to adaptation.

“What you should probably do in an adaptation is make it your own,” he said.

For Call My Manager, making it its own means bringing the French format into the culture of Philippine showbiz — a world Matti describes as personal, emotional and, at times, absurd.

“I just want to lift our project,” he said. “This series.”

Call My Manager premiered on HBO Max on 13 August. The eight-episode series releases one new episode every Thursday.