We kdrama fans know that it was 2005’s mega-hit drama My Name Is Kim Samsoon (aka My Lovely Samsoon) that catapulted American model-actor Daniel Henney to stardom in Korea, but it’s also apparently the reason for his U.S. television debut four years later.

Henney has landed a leading role playing “David Lee,” a Korean-American doctor, on the new CBS medical drama Three Rivers, which premieres this fall. The producers of the show searched widely for Asian actors in their casting process, and ended up watching Samsoon. They felt that the gentleness he displayed as Jung Ryeo-won’s doctor was similar to what they were looking for in the Lee character, and auditioned him. The producers reportedly agreed to cast him immediately after his audition “without argument.”

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Get ready to set your Tivos!

Daniel Henney’s U.S. medical television series, Three Rivers, has been assigned a timeslot for CBS’s fall lineup: Sundays at 9pm.

I just hope it doesn’t suck! FYI, Three Rivers airs against NBC’s Sunday Night Football, ABC’s Desperate Housewives, and Fox’s Family Guy and American Dad.

Via Variety

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Get ready to see Daniel Henney on U.S. television — his pilot, CBS drama series Three Rivers, has been given the green light for the fall season.

(The network will make the official announcement on Wednesday, but the news has already been leaked and the show has been given the go-ahead to begin staffing writers.)

The series is a medical drama that centers around doctors who specialize in organ transplants, as well as organ donors and recipients. It stars Julia Ormond (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and Alex O’Loughlin (Moonlight) as doctors; Daniel Henney also plays a transplant specialist.

The drama doesn’t appeal to me in the least — it seems much more like Three Pounds (remember that? no?) than ER — but will I be watching? Yup. (At least at first.)

And as much as I rag on Daniel Henney’s subpar acting ability, I’m really, really hoping he steps it up and shows he’s improved from his days of stiff delivery and wooden expressions and “I was hit by a bullet once” (a la Seducing Mr. Perfect — shudder).

Via Yonhap News

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Jeon Ji-hyun’s Hollywood debut has been buzzed about for practically two years, and although previews have finally come out for Blood: The Last Vampire, there has still been no official U.S. release announced (July has been mentioned as a tentative possibility). It seems that Korean fans and netizens are growing weary of the hype without an actual product, and have started to voice their suspicions, dissatisfied with the exaggeration of her role and accusing her of false advertising.

The movie has been touted all along as a “Hollywood film,” by Jeon herself as well as the promotional machine. Sidus HQ, Jeon’s management, explained: “When Jeon Ji-hyun spoke of it as her Hollywood debut film, she didn’t mean that it was made in Hollywood but that it would be released in America. The point is that it is the first step in the Hollywood system.”

The source article points out that even though the film wasn’t made by Hollywood, this wouldn’t be an issue if it had received investments from American film companies. However, the production budget was not furnished by Hollywood, financed instead by companies in four other countries, making it a co-production between Japan, Hong Kong, France, and Argentina. The film has a French director, Chris Nahon, and is based on a Japanese manga.

I think this is rather harsh on Jeon (and really, Blood kinda looks awesome, much better than the other so-called Hallyu-to-Hollywood debuts), but it has a very valid point, which is to take the press and management companies to task for being too eager to label any and everything a “Hollywood debut.” For instance, the media was quick to blare the trumpets for Han Chae-young’s “Hollywood debut” in the horror film Soul Mate, which was a Korea-New Zealand production that had no traction in Hollywood. Han Go-eun’s supposed Hollywood project was a Korea-Canada co-production.

On the other hand, there are projects that can be legitimately called Hollywood debuts, such as Daniel Henney’s recently released X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Lee Byung-heon’s upcoming G.I. Joe (which releases in August), Rain’s upcoming Ninja Assassin (November), and Jang Dong-gun’s The Warrior’s Way (which was previously called Laundry Warrior).

Via My Daily

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Daniel Henney, coming off his action movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine, has a new project lined up, and it’s for a U.S. drama pilot. He’s been cast in Three Rivers, a drama in development at CBS.

Three Rivers stars Julia Ormond and takes a look at organ transplants from three perspectives: doctors, donors, recipients. Ormond plays a doctor at Three Rivers Hospital, while another doctor character will be played by Alex O’Loughlin (remember that awful, awful Angel-wannabe vampire show Moonlight? Yeah, he’s the guy from that. To be fair, the show sucked but he was the only decent thing about it).

The series comes from writer and exec producer Carol Barbee, who ran the CBS dramas Jericho and Judging Amy. Henney accepted the casting offer early last month and headed to the States to shoot the pilot. His character is apparently a kidney/liver/pancreas transplant specialist.

Before you get excited (and it’s a soft CBS non-procedural, so really, there’s no reason to get excited), this is just a pilot. Meaning, it has not yet been picked up for a series order. (CBS’s advertising upfront presentation is on May 20, which is when they’ll unveil their fall lineup.)

Via My Daily, The Futon Critic, The Hollywood Reporter
Here’s a blogger’s (negative) review on the pilot script.

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