MANILA — John Lloyd Cruz has finally ended his years-long hiatus from showbiz with “Servando Magdamag,” a Lav Diaz adaptation of a short story by Ricky Lee.

Producer Black Sheep on Wednesday shared the first glimpse of the film, which sees Cruz as the titular character.

In the behind-the-scenes reel, Diaz and Lee shared their collaborative process for translating the story for the big screen.

Diaz first came across “Servando Magdamag” when he was in first year college in Ateneo de Manila University, and since then had been adamant on making a film version of it.

“Through the years, never siyang bumitaw. Nag-pelikula na siya, nakilala, and then eventually, a couple of years ago, nilapitan niya ulit ako. ‘Ituloy na natin ‘yung Servando.’ And excited na excited siya because he was thinking of John Lloyd already,” Lee said.

Watch more in iWantv or TFC.tv

The adaptation had been years in the making, the acclaimed writer said, pointing out the difficulty of putting into script the “stream of consciousness” of the source material.

When Lee finally finished the script, he encouraged Diaz to “own” the story with his own revisions.

“It’s all about the death of the Monzon family, a feudal family,” Diaz explained. “Na sa crossroads si Servando. ‘Tatapusin ko ba ang mahabang kasaysayan ng karahasan ng mga Monzon sa akin?’ Iyong premise ng kuwento: it’s a history of Filipino violence in the country.”

A release date for “Servando Magdamag” has yet to be announced.