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Sunday, September 04, 2005
Formula 1 animates Matteo, not acting
By Glenn C. Michelena
Sun.Star Correspondent
For his prodigious exploits as a karter, 15-year-old Matteo Guidicelli has long been a fixture in the sports pages. Now it looks like he’s going to be staple in the entertainment pages as well.
No small thanks to his boyish good looks, Guidicelli already has a slew of commercial modeling gigs under his belt, and a budding movie career – the Eurasian teener has an animated feature series on AXN.
Anime
The TV series – “Initial D Fourth Stage: Project D,” which will be premiering on Oct. 9 – is an anime action-adventure production where Guidicelli voices (make a wild guess) a hotshot racer named Takumi Fujiwara. Angel Locsin will also star in the flick, where she will play Guidicelli’s love interest-colleague Kyoko Iwase.
“I’m excited how it turns out. I really hope it gets a positive response,” says Guidicelli.
To date, Guidicelli has already gotten very good reviews and has been surprisingly very comfortable in front of the camera.
“He has the look of a big-time matinee idol,” says one Manila-based talent agent.
Super Kart Series
He’s pretty good at the racetracks, too.
Guidicelli, who has been karting since age 11, has a ton of national titles, as well as a couple of international stints abroad, and has been named as the 2004 Karter of the Year by the Philippine karting circuit.
Yesterday, at the qualifying heats of the 2005 Shell Super Karting Series, Guidicelli, the jewel of the Cebu Racing Group, finished first in the 125 Rotax Max Senior/ Master division, where he clocked 69.453 seconds.
“It wasn’t so good,” Guidicelli, who is currently tied with M&M Racing’s Michelle Bumgarner at second in the ICA Class, told Sun.Star Cebu.
“I had a little problem with my tires. Apparently my team wasn’t able to get the pressure right, so I had to adjust, and a lot of things just didn’t go right,” said Guidicelli of his performance.
“That’s why tomorrow is going to be a big day.”
Guidicelli, a homegrown Cebuano who is now based in Manila and currently attends Brent International School-Laguna, says that his move to Manila is mainly for his racing career. Guidicelli said that he aims to make the transition to F1 racing in the United States in a year or two.
“There are a lot more races in Manila. Also, I’m trying to polish my Tagalog. When I was taping for Initial D, I really had a hard time getting my Tagalog right.”
Poor Tagalog
Is he also trying to polish his Tagalog for cinematic purposes? Guidicelli emphatically says “No,” sternly adding, “Honestly, I’m not looking at a career in the movies. The only thing I’m dead serious on achieving is making it in the F1 circuit.”
So, does that mean a zero-percent chance of seeing him on the big screen?
Guidicelli took a split-second pause, and, with a sly grin, blurted out: “Hollywood, perhaps.”
(September 4, 2005 issue)
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