Not long after Han Hyo-joo announced her next project, she’s changed her mind and dropped out of Chuno [추노], the Joseon-era fusion sageuk with Jang Hyuk and Oh Ji-ho (who are staying with the production). In Chuno, Han was to have played a daughter to servants who falls into a love triangle with the two leading men.

This coincides with Han Hyo-joo’s recent decision to part ways with her management company and go a different way on her own. Apparently the disagreement over Chuno arose from this, as well as conflicts regarding salary.

The production team (led by the director of Conspiracy in the Court and the screenwriter of Level 7 Civil Servant) are currently in search of a new actress to fill her spot.

Han Hyo-joo has had a successful record of leading drama series, enough to be called something of a hitmaker (she followed her popular Iljimae role with the recent smash hit series Brilliant Legacy), so no doubt she’ll land on her feet. It has been hinted that she is in talks to join a different drama “starring a pretty-boy actor” — somehow, You’re Beautiful with Jang Geun-seok springs to mind — and will announce her next role shortly.

Via Star News

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Jang Hyuk, Han Hyo-joo, Oh Ji-ho

With her hot drama Brilliant Legacy heading toward its close (and achieving a 40% rating), Han Hyo-joo has picked out her next drama, which she’ll begin filming right away. The series is Chuno [추노, or Pursuing Servants] and it casts Han in the role of a daughter to servants (sometimes translated as slaves, though there are arguments against that nomenclature) in the mid-Joseon era.

She will act alongside Jang Hyuk (Tazza) and Oh Ji-ho (Queen of Housewives), who are two actors who strike me as seeming rather “modern” for a sageuk like this (Han has previous sageuk experience, although Iljimae was really a fusion drama). However, I have to look upon this drama with a favorable eye if only for its director, PD Kwak Jung-hwan, who also did the wonderfully dark fusion sageuk thriller Conspiracy in the Court [한성별곡]. Writing is Level 7 Civil Servant screenwriter Chun Sung-il.

Aside from Jang Hyuk and Oh Ji-ho, Lee Jong-hyuk (Crush and Blush, Rivals) and Gong Hyung-jin (I Love You, Dal Ja’s Spring) have also been cast. Okay, one WTF moment: I understand that Oh Ji-ho’s career has experienced a rejuvenation with Queen of Housewives‘ massive popularity, but he’s not really getting top billing over Lee Jong-hyuk, is he? (And in a historical drama to boot?)

The drama is produced by the company behind Level 7 Civil Servant, Harimao Pictures, and is scheduled to air on KBS Wednesdays and Thursdays in October following Please Take Care of the Lady (aka the former Lady Castle).

Via Asia Economy, Star News

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SBS has another historical drama planned for Mondays and Tuesdays, which brings Han Hye-jin (Terroir) back to the sageuk genre following her turn in Jumong two years ago. The drama is Jejoongwon [제중원], which is the first modern hospital in Korea established in the Joseon era in the year 1886. Han takes the lead role opposite the already cast Park Yong-woo (Cell Phone).

This should be interesting with PD Hong Chang-wook of Scale of Providence and Catch a Kangnam Mother directing, but even more so for writer Lee Ki-won, who wrote the Korean version of White Tower (and Spotlight, but we can forget about that one). He was tremendously successful in bringing to life the tensions and political maneuverings within a hospital of ambitious doctors in a modern setting; will that translate to a historical setting?

Park Yong-woo plays a man who overcomes adversity to succeed as a doctor. Han Hye-jin plays a character representing the “modern woman” of the age who becomes a doctor and shares a romantic loveline with Park.

Jejoongwon will enter filming in July and is looking at an October premiere.

Via E Daily

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I’d heard some rumblings for a while about a sequel to uber-Hallyu smash hit Dae Jang Geum being in the works, but I kind of figured it was one of those constant rumors. However, the production announced on June 3 that the drama project is not canceled, and despite initial plans to produce a Dae Jang Geum 2 this year, they have merely pushed it back to sometime next year instead.

On the other hand, it was also recently announced that Lee Young-ae will NOT be reprising her lead role, so I’m not sure how much of a sequel it’ll be when its title character is absent.

Attached to the project is the original series’ director, PD Lee Byung-hoon, while the scripts will be written by Yi San writer Kim Yi-young.

Via Asia Economy

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Jung Ryeo-won (”Ja Myung Go”), Go Hyun-jung (”Queen Seon-deok”)

Queen Seon-deok, MBC’s historical extravaganza, got off to a decent start today with a first-place premiere at a 16% rating. Ja Myung Go, already nervous, may as well be put on death watch.

In most cases, a first-episode rating number isn’t too important (ratings can change greatly over the course of a drama’s run), but Ja Myung Go is currently awaiting a final decision on whether or not to curtail its 50-episode run by six weeks, or 12 episodes, down to 38 episodes total; it is reportedly monitoring Seon-deok’s opening numbers closely. Ja Myung Go has been drawing positive response for its acting, but given that its numbers are not rising from its current 10.4% (Story of a Man swung upward just a little bit at 9.8%), I think it was hoping for more than it got. The actors are preparing themselves for an early finish.

The drama to follow Ja Myung Go, Dream, is preparing to begin filming. (It stars Joo Jin-mo, Kim Bum, and Sohn Dam-bi and features Kim Bum as a juvenile delinquent who becomes a mixed martial arts fighter.)

Meanwhile, Seon-deok has drawn positive response for the acting of its leading lady, Go Hyun-jung; the writer has praised Go’s performance as “better than expected.” Her co-star Lee Yo-won will make her appearance a bit later as Queen Seon-deok herself.

Via My Daily, Segye, and Segye again

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