Jerry Yan Will Play The Young Version of "Zhang Yi Mao"

Wendesday August 22, 2007 China

Dong Fang Daily (Mainland China)
source: http://www.dfdaily.com/node2/node33/node25...t1 ai23397.shtml

translation by kkla@www.nbbbs.com

According to DFDaily, the 30-episode tv drama, Qin Statue, is confirmed to start filming by the end of this year after 2 years of delay. Yesterday, TW's media firstly released the news of Yan Cheng Xu's challenging the role, Meng Tian Fang, which was played by Zhang Yi Mao years ago, and Yan Cheng Xu's talent fee will be up to RMB$160,000 per episode, which is as high as the top actors, such as Chan Dao Ming, in Mainland China. Yesterday, the reporter called the director, Gordon Chan Jia Shang, and he confirmed that Yan Cheng Xu is the most appropriate candidate for the male lead. Regarding the role played by Gong Li in the past, the possibility of being played by newcomer can't be ruled out.

Based on Chan Jia Shang's introduction, tv drama Qin Statue's storyline/scenes will be expanded to overseas. The production crew will travel to Tokyo, Japan for the filming, and the time travel love story between Meng Tian Fang and Dong Er which goes through 3 different lives will be fully elaborated in the tv drama. Chan Jia Shang indicates that the storyline/scenes in the tv drama is/are all new creation that it can't be found in the novel.

According to information, the script has come to the last editing stage and the finalized script will be completed by October. Chan Jia Shang indicates that the script has been worked on for 2 years. As this is his first tv drama, he has set high standards in the script. Regarding whether he has pressure to re-film a classic production, he mentioned when he initially discussed with Li Bi Hua, the plan was a movie, but as it is really difficult to surpass the movie, the project has turned into a tv drama. After all, tv drama has more capacity for telling a complete story with all the detials. If the tv drama gets good response, it is possible to have a movie version afterward.

Chan Jia Shang stated that the casting didn't start until last month. He has good impression on Yan Cheng Xu, feeling that he is reserved and low profiled that it is similar to Meng Tian Fang's character. Years ago, when Zhang Yi Mao played the role, he portrayed a rustic countryman. However, Chan Jia Shang said that time has changed, so do the characters. The audience will see a young version of Qin Statue. Besides, the reason he chose Yan Cheng Xu was also because of Yan's wonderful selling power in the overseas markets.

As the money involved is so big, it must rely on the overseas markets to make profits. Even the investors agree that Yan Cheng Xu has pretty good popularity in Korea and Japan, so they have confidence in him. Chan Jia Shang reviewed that the negotiation has reached the contract signing stage for both parties, and only the schedule and talent fee are still under discussion. Regarding Gong Li's role, he has not decided who will be the female lead. The preliminary plan is to cast a newcomer. At this time, his priority is to decide who will play Qin Shi Huang. Although there was rumor that Huang Qiu Sheng will play the role, Chan indicates that Huang's talent fee is high, so it may not push through at the end.

**ok, here's another rumored tv series he's in. he hasn't even confirmed to filming Basketball of Fire..and according to him, he's preparing for a movie to be shot next year. he's actually in Japan right now..
as to what he has chosen already (coz for sure it was planned ahead) and what will be filmed first, we'll just have to wait and see..