Mario O’Hara is not competing in the 2010 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival.

The award-winning director has reneged on a previous commitment to do a story dubbed “Ang Paglilitis ni Andres Bonifacio,”due to what is said to be a “disagreement” with his co-producer.

The news was relayed to ABS-CBN by movie writer Dennis Adobas, who named the co-producer as a certain Ellen Ilagan.

Ilagan is described as a “friend” of Alfred Vargas, the actor who was supposed to play the role of The Plebeian in the film.

“Maraming provisions sa contract ang hindi sang-ayon si Ms. Ilagan kaya nag-decide si Mario to drop the project altogether,” Adobas was quoted as saying.

That said, Adobas claimed O’Hara assured him that he would still try to complete the project within the year.

“Gagawin ni Mario ang pelikula kahit hindi para sa Cinemalaya,” Adobas said.

Only a few weeks ago, “Ang Paglilitis ni Andres Bonifacio” was named one of five film titles in the newly created division of the annual film festival, the Open Category.

Other entries in the class include Mark Meily’s “Isang Pirasong Buhay;” Joselito Altarejos’ “Pink Halo-Halo;” Joel Lamangan’s “Sigwa;” and Gil Portes’ “Two Funerals.”

The selected films were awarded seed production grant of P500,000 courtesy of Grassroots Film Production and Distribution, Inc. plus an additional P100,000 post-production support.

O’Hara said the grant was not enough to complete his vision of the story, and as such he had to look for investors to help him in the project.

In a previous interview with a daily, O’Hara he has decided to do the story because history books are “too sanitized.”

“[History books are too careful] not to hurt some people, so most writers opted to play it safe. We don’t know the real story, considering that this is a crucial part of our history. This is the root of Philippine politics.”

O’Hara’s last film was the critically acclaimed “Ang Babae sa Breakwater” (2004).