Capitol Theatre Pictures

01In pre-production

MANILA1974

Logline

A student activist, the most beautiful girl in the universe (Miss Spain, Miss Universe), and the last Japanese World War 2 soldier converge in this funky historical fiction set 2 years after Martial Law is declared in Manila.

StatusPre-production

FormatFeature film

SettingManila, 1974

DirectorJerrold TarogHeneral Luna, Goyo, Quezon

ProducerJun JubanApocalypse Now, Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, The Bourne Legacy

Executive ProducerEddie RochaTBA Studios

Writer & ProducerJoey Tuason

ProductionCapitol Theatre Pictures

Follow the production Press & partnerships

Timeline1935 → 2028

From opening night on Escolta to opening night for MANILA 1974.

1935

8 January

The Capitol opens

Juan Nakpil’s Art Deco picture palace opens at 250 Escolta, with Francesco Riccardo Monti’s muses at the door and a rare double balcony inside.

Period rendering of the Capitol Theatre on Escolta

1938

The studio era begins

Sampaguita & LVN

Sampaguita Pictures (1937) and LVN Pictures (1938) are founded — the studios that would shape Filipino filmmaking for decades. Talking pictures in Tagalog find a mass audience, and palaces like the Capitol give them a stage.

1941

War

The lights go out

The Japanese invasion halts the young studio era. By 1945 the Battle of Manila has left much of the city in ruins.

Onoda’s katana — Lt. Hiroo Onoda held out on Lubang Island until he surrendered his sword in 1974

1950s

The first golden age

The studios at their peak

Sampaguita, LVN and their rivals rebuild and reach their height: the first golden age of Philippine cinema, built on the audience the picture palaces of the 1930s created.

1970s

The second golden age

A new wave

A new generation of filmmakers brings Manila’s streets to the screen, ushering in the second golden age of Philippine cinema.

1974

Martial law, year two

The year of our story

Manila under martial law. This is the city and the year where Manila 1974 takes place.

1980s

The audience moves

Malls and the LRT

Construction of the LRT and new air-conditioned mall cinemas draw moviegoers away from the grand old theaters downtown.

2020

Final curtain

The Capitol comes down

The building is torn down to make way for a high-rise. Its story is still ours to tell.

2026

A new marquee

Capitol Theatre Pictures

Our company takes the Capitol’s name and brings it back to Philippine cinema.

2027

Pre-production

Manila 1974 begins pre-production

Manila 1974 enters pre-production.

2028

Planned release

Manila 1974

The first Capitol Theatre Pictures feature, coming to cinemas in 2028.

02The Capitol

A picture palace built for Philippine cinema’s golden years.

On 8 January 1935 the Capitol Theatre opened at 250 Escolta — then Manila's grandest commercial street. Its architect, Juan F. Nakpil, later named a National Artist, gave it a sleek Art Deco tower and an air-conditioned interior with a double balcony, a rare feat for the time.

Two muses in traje de mestiza, carved by the Italian sculptor Francesco Riccardo Monti, flanked the tower — one holding a mask, one a lyre. Inside, sampaguita flowers wound through the ironwork and the proscenium, and the lobby carried Rising Philippines, a mural by the modernists Victorio Edades, Carlos “Botong” Francisco and Galo Ocampo.

The Capitol opened just as talking pictures were changing Philippine film. Within a few years, Sampaguita Pictures and LVN Pictures were making Tagalog films for a mass audience, and palaces like the Capitol turned an evening at the pictures into an event. The moviegoing habit they built carried Filipino cinema, after the war, into its first golden age in the 1950s.

It was a Filipino building, made by Filipino hands, for a Filipino audience. That is the house our company is named for.

The Capitol's lobby in the 1930s: the Rising Philippines mural behind Carlos V. Francisco, Severino Fabie, Galo B. Ocampo, Victorio C. Edades and architect Juan F. Nakpil — Fig. 01 — The lobby and its mural, Rising Philippines. L–R: Carlos V. Francisco, Severino Fabie, Galo B. Ocampo, Victorio C. Edades, Juan F. Nakpil · © Manila Nostalgia / Isidra Reyes

1935

Inaugurated 8 January on Escolta, Binondo

1,100

Seats across a double balcony, air-conditioned

Nakpil

Juan F. Nakpil, architect — later National Artist

₱1.20

Orchestra seat, 1950s — as remembered by a moviegoer

The Capitol's auditorium: rows of seats beneath the curved balcony and a vaulted ceiling with pendant lights — Fig. 02 — The auditorium: curved rows rising to the double balcony · [Photo credit / source]

The family behind the marquee

A family business, in a new century.

The Capitol was founded by Don Antonio Tuason, whose family brought it to Escolta through their Eastern Theatrical Company. It was his son, Nicasio Tuason, who ran the house day to day as its general manager: booking the pictures, filling the balconies and keeping the lights on. The Hollywood trade papers of the 1930s knew him simply as “Nick Tuason” of the Capitol, staging stunts across Manila to sell his pictures.

Today Nicasio's great-grandson, Joey Tuason, runs Capitol Theatre Pictures. The marquee is ours again, and so is the job of filling it.