This is not finalized (so take with a grain of salt), but Jeon Ji-hyun’s potential drama comeback just may come in the Korean adaptation of Japanese manga Absolute Boyfriend, aka Zettai Kareshi. The kdrama will be directed by PD Kim Min-shik of Queen of Housewives and Before and After: Plastic Surgery.

Jeon Ji-hyun is currently busy surveying projects to finalize her decision, and the Zettai remake is reportedly a strong contender. (It had considered casting U-Know Yunho at one point, who moved on to Heading to the Ground instead.) A source with the production said, “We understand that for a long while, Jeon Ji-hyun has been carefully preparing to take a role in a Korean drama. We are working out the details of her casting, and hope for a positive result.”

In the original fantasy-romance manga, a girl accidentally gets a made-to-order boyfriend android from a website, only to find out that she has to pay an exorbitant amount to keep him — unless she helps the company conduct research to improve future models. She must then hide his non-human status from others, and he starts to develop human emotions.

In the kdrama version, the lead is not a teenager but a 30-year-old woman who is a stylist at a beauty salon without any clients. She is betrayed by her first love who becomes an overnight success as a movie star. Feeling the sting, she orders up her ideal man in robot form, aka her “absolute boyfriend.”

Absolute Boyfriend will be a 16-episode drama to air on MBC either at the end of this year or in early 2010. If she decides on the drama, it will be Jeon Ji-hyun’s first in ten years, since 1999’s Happy Together. After seeing such a lot of the same old kdramas airing one after another, this plot sounds like a refreshing change.

(Of course, the big question — aside from whether Jeon will sign on — is: Who plays the perfect manbot?? My wishlist: Kim Kang-woo or Gong Yoo!)

Via DongA

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Jeon Ji-hyun is currently eyeing new projects, and may possibly be returning to television in a drama series. She has reportedly received an offer to star in a drama currently in its preparation stages, and is said to be considering it seriously. The plot centers around a woman who is dumped by her boyfriend, then goes out of her way to find a man “just like her old love.”

Jeon hasn’t acted in a drama in ten years; her last was the 1999 show Happy Together (with Lee Byung-heon, Song Seung-heon, Kim Haneul, and Cha Tae-hyun). Following that, she’s stuck to films like Il Mare, Windstruck, and her claim to fame, 2001’s My Sassy Girl. She has maintained her fame as a top star with a bevy of CFs, even though recent endeavors have fallen somewhat short of expectations, including her latest film, the vampire action movie Blood: The Last Vampire. Blood performed poorly at the box office and pulled in poor reviews (although Jeon did receive some praise for her role).

The drama series in question is expected to be announced on a broadcast schedule this week. Some reports say Jeon is in talks with production, while her management, Sidus HQ, has come out with the vague statement that they will consider any project if it’s good, but are not focused on one in particular. (Take with a grain of salt; sometimes production companies announce prematurely, but often the casting news proves accurate.)

Via Star News

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Jeon Ji-hyun (or Gianna Jun) received an invitation to the Chanel haute couture collection in Paris, which she attended on July 7.

The invitation was extended by Chanel’s head designer and creative director Karl Lagerfeld; Jeon hobnobbed among some of the event’s elite, which included royalty, Chinese actress Zhou Xun, and French actress Anna Mouglalis, a Chanel muse who also played Coco in the 2009 film Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky. Jeon arrived wearing a black chiffon Chanel dress; her Paris trip will be featured in the August issue of Harper’s Bazaar Korea.

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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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Jeon Ji-hyun — or, as she will soon be known to the Western world, Gianna Jun — is featured in the May issue of Hong Kong Elle magazine as its cover story. Expect the star to be in the news more with her upcoming Hollywood blockbuster, Blood: The Last Vampire, nearing its premiere.

In the interview featured in Elle, Jeon talks about how she felt shooting Blood and taking on the character of 16-year-old vampire hunter Saya.

The film opens in Korea on June 11, while the Japanese release is set for May 29. (Most other releases are listed for June, such as June 4 for Hong Kong, June 17 for France, and June 19 for the U.K.)

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