…in case you were wondering, which you probably weren’t.

MBC’s weekend miniseries Friend, Our Legend [친구, 우리들의 전설] has not had the buzzed-about broadcast run it was hoping for when it adapted one of the biggest box-office hits in Korean film history and cast name stars like Hyun Bin and Kim Min-joon in the leads. I wouldn’t call it an abject failure… but nobody could say it hasn’t been disappointing.

In fact, the drama has most recently had to fight rumors that it is cutting its broadcast run and ending early. The production has come out and issued strong denials, stating that the drama has always been planned for 20 installments and has already completed those episodes.

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Yoo Sun and Lee Pil-mo of Sons of Sol Pharmacy

With Brilliant Legacy out of the picture, KBS’s cheery family drama Sons of Sol Pharmacy has reclaimed the top spot as the number 1 weekend drama after ten weeks of being pushed aside by the now-wrapped Brilliant Legacy.

Sol Pharmacy’s Saturday episode recorded a 26.3% just as its storyline gets more interesting in the Dae-pung and Bok-shil area. On the other hand, a new contender, SBS’s Style, premiered well with a 17.6%. That number made it number 1 in its time slot, and number 2 among the weekend dramas overall.

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I haven’t had a chance to see the newly aired drama Friend, Our Legend [친구, 우리들의 전설], but perhaps you have. It premiered this past weekend on MBC, and has been the source of a lot of curiosity, given its cast (Hyun Bin, Kim Min-joon), director (Kwak Kyung-taek of the film), and high-profile source material (the movie Friend) which starred one of Korea’s most famous and well-liked movie actors, Jang Dong-gun. Naturally people have been prepared to draw comparisons between the two versions (and two lead actors in the main role of Dong-soo).

On the drama’s upside, the entire series has been produced in its entirety, meaning that the actors are now done filming and the production won’t be in a race to beat the clock to get the episodes on air. Furthermore, having the same director behind both projects pre-empts some of the comments that the drama is merely aping the style of its film predecessor.

Here’s an interview with Hyun Bin from last week, published just a few days before the drama’s premiere.

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Are you excited for the new drama Friend, Our Legend?

If you’re not, that’s okay. I’m not, either, despite (or perhaps because of) all the hype. But there are a lot of dramas that I didn’t expect to like initially that I did in the end, so I won’t make a call until it’s aired. And that’ll be soon — with the weekend drama Strike Love meeting an ignominious end, Friend, Our Legend will be airing a little sooner than originally planned; it premieres on Saturday, June 27, on MBC.

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Before the drama Friend, Our Legend even gets off the ground, announcements have been made for a musical version in the works. There’s even a new word to describe the trend of movie-turned-musicals (e.g., 200 Pound Beauty, On Air): the somewhat ungainly term “moviecal.”

A representative from Friend’s production company said, “We haven’t made concrete plans yet, but it’s true we are in talks to produce the musical.” Although technically this adaptation would be based on the original film, considering that the movie was released in 2001 and the drama version is set to come out this month, they must be riding on the anticipated popularity of the Hyun Bin-led miniseries. (What happens if it flops?)

Meanwhile 20-episode television drama has been produced in its entirety prior to its first broadcast, which will be this weekend, June 27.

Via Sports Khan

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• Auditions for Friend pick up steam

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