LOS ANGELES, California — “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” “Watchmen.” “The Lovely Bones.” These are among the eagerly anticipated films of 2009.

Whatever happened to Yam Laranas’ “The Echo,” his US remake of his acclaimed Filipino thriller, “Sigaw”? The film had a nice momentum going, with good buzz buildup, and then its release date got stalled. What happened?

Yam explained to us via e-mail: “The movie got great reviews and several major film distributors expressed interest. Sad to say, though, that we’re also affected by the recession in the US that’s hitting Hollywood pretty hard, especially indie movies like ‘The Echo.’ It has become even harder now to raise the funds needed for promotions and advertising…”

We hope “The Echo” gets a 2009 release and that the horror fans’ enthusiasm for Yam’s film with Jesse Bradford, Jamie Bloch, Iza Calzado and Kevin Durand stays solid until opening day — whenever that is.
- Source: Inquirer.net