MANILA, Philippines — The Meralco Bolts weathered the 48-point explosion of Robert Bolick to hang on against the NLEX Road Warriors, 97-93, in Game 1 of their PBA Philippine Cup best-of-three quarterfinals series Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Allein Maliksi led the six Bolts in double figures with 22 markers off the bench. He also hauled down four rebounds.
With the Road Warriors trailing by just one, 83-84, with a split from the line by Bolick, Bong Quinto dialed in a 3-pointer from beyond the arc to give Meralco a four-point cushion, 87-83.
A Bolick deuce gave NLEX a one-point lead, 93-92, with a minute remaining, but Maliksi’s freebies gave the Bolts the lead on ce again.
On the other end, Michael Miranda missed a game-leading jumpshot. A miss-and-make from the charity stripe by Chris Newsome gave the Road Warriors a window of opportunity to tie or take the le ad, 95-93.
But Richie Rodger committed a turnover in the next possession. Two pressure-packed freebies by Maliksi iced the game as Bolick missed a 3-pointer with time winding down.
NLEX led by as much as 12 points, 56-44, at the start of the third quarter with a jumper by Michael Miranda.
The Bolts though climbed back, cutting the deficit to two, 60-62 after a Maliksi jumper.
A 11-3 run capped by a triple by Miranda gave the Road Warriors an eight point advantage once again, 73-65, but an 8-2 counter-attack turned the game into a two possession affair, 73-75, heading into the fourth canto.
Raymond Almazan had a solid game with 15 points and six rebounds. Anjo Caram added 14, while Newsome an d Chris Banchero provided 12 markers apiece.
Quinto chipped in 11 and six off the bench for Meralco.
Bolick went on 12-of-25 field goal shooting and had an 18-of-19 clip from the free throw line.
Miranda was the only other NLEX player in double figure s with 14.
Meralco will try to advance to the next round of the playoffs on Sunday, 6:15 p.m., at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum in Manila.
MANILA, Philippines — A new “Lord of the Rings” movie based on the character Gollum is in development, with Andy Serkies set to reprise his role as the famous skulking character.
Apart from starring once more as Gollum, or Smeagol, Serkis has also been tapped to direct the film currently given the working title “Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.”
Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive Officer David Zaslav confirmed that the “Gollum” movie would be the first of three planned live-action projects in the “Lord of the Rings” franchise.
The executive also said the original trilogy’s director, Peter Jackson, and his partners, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, are producing the film and “will be involved every step of the way.”
Walsh and Boyens are already in the early stages of script development with Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou, who are the writers on the upcoming animated film “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.” The writers will “explore storylines yet to be told,” he added.
“It is an honor and a privilege to travel back to Middle-earth with our good friend and collaborator, Andy Serkis, who has unfinished business with that Stinker — Gollum!” Jackson, Walsh and Boyens said in a statement. “As life-long fans of Professor Tolkien’s vast mythology, we are proud to be working on another epic adventure!”
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Serkis’ portion of the statement was in true Gollum fashion, ““Yesssss, Precious. The time has come once more to venture into the unknown with my dear friends, the extraordinary and incomparable guardians of Middle-earth Peter, Fran and Philippa… it’s just all too delicious…”
Jackson helmed the three “Lord of the Rings” movies released between 2001 and 2003, earning nearly $3 billion (P172 billion) at the box office and winning 17 Academy Awards from 30 nominations.
Eleven (11) of those wins were from the last entry, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” which made history as it swept all its nominations.
A decade later, Jackson directed the prequel trilogy based on another Tolkien book, “The Hobbit,” which centers around Bilbo Baggins.
After his stint as Gollum/Smeagol, Serkis became a huge figure in motion-capture acting by appearing in films like “King Kong” (a Jackson film), “The Adventures of Tintin,” the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy, the “Planet of the Apes” reboot trilogy, and “Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle,” which was also his second directorial feature.
Serkis has also starred in “The Batman,” “Andor,” “13 Going On 30,” “The Prestige,” “Inkheart,” and played Ulysses Klaue in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
He also directed “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” and is set to helm an animated film adaptation of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.”
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