Song Joong-ki, Son Ye-jin and Taecyeon eyed for new K-drama productions
- Song’s next role will reportedly be in the upcoming JTBC series Youngest Son of the Corporate Family, based on the popular webtoon of the same name
- Taecyeon is to appear in period drama Secret Royal Inspector and Jo-yi, which will also co-star Kim Hye-yoon
Following the finale of the hit series Vincenzo, several cast members have been swept up by new productions, which include a period investigative romcom, a black comedy and a revenge drama. Among the other new shows in the pipeline are the K-drama treatment of an early effort from Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho, and a mystery thriller about a missing woman.
Secret Royal Inspector and Jo-yi
Vincenzo villain Taecyeon has booked his next TV role, which will be in the upcoming period drama Secret Royal Inspector and Jo-yi (translated title). Joining him on screen will be Kim Hye-yoon, known for SKY Castle and Extraordinary You.
Taceyeon will play the laid-back Ra Yi-eon, who passed the civil service exam and winds up being a secret royal inspector even though his dream is to run a small dumpling shop. Kim is on board as Kim Jo-yi, a progressive woman who believes in divorce, especially as she hopes to divorce her gambling-addicted husband.
When Yi-eon and Jo-yi meet by chance, both their lives are irrevocably changed and they begin to work on secret royal cases together.
The King of Pigs
Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho actually debuted as an animation filmmaker, and that film, the gritty high school bullying tale The King of Pigs, is headed to the small screen as a live-action series.
Both Kim Dong-wook ( Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds ) and Kim Sung-kyu ( Kingdom ) are reviewing offers to star in the series which focuses on a group of friends who are mercilessly bullied in school and how the events that transpire during their school days shaped them and continue to traumatise them as adults.
Studio Dragon and Hidden Sequence are teaming up to produce the drama, which may stream on TVING in the first half of next year, though its distribution has yet to be fixed.
The Mansion
Yoon Kyun-sang, star of Class of Lies and Clean with Passion for Now, and Lim Ji-yeon of the films Obsessed and Luck-Key, have been offered leading roles in the upcoming TVING drama The Mansion. Yoon’s offer is for the part of Min-soo, a police detective looking into the case of a missing person.
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The show will depict Min-soo and his brother seeking a woman who was last seen in a rose mansion. Kim Chang-ju, the filmmaker behind the Cannes-invited The Target, is set to helm the series. Lim is being eyed to play the role of Ji-na, the younger sister of the missing woman, who starts to dig into the secrets surrounding her elder sibling’s life.
Hounds
Hounds, an eight-episode adaptation of the Naver webtoon Hunting Dogs, is set to be the latest project to join the growing line of Netflix’s Korean original series. The story concerns three young men who find themselves chasing a big payday after each of them has fallen into debt. The series will be helmed by Kim Joo-hwan (aka Jason Kim), the director of the action-comedy hit Midnight Runners and the exorcism action-thriller The Divine Fury .
Though casting has yet be finalised, Sweet Home ’s Lee Do-hyun and Kwak Dong-yeon, who played Taecyeon’s brother in Vincenzo, have both been approached to star. The series is expected to begin production in the second half of the year.
Youngest Son of the Corporate Family
Following a busy start to the year, during which he headlined both the Netflix Original film Space Sweepers and the hit series Vincenzo, Song Joong-ki may have found his next role as he has reportedly been cast in the upcoming JTBC series Youngest Son of the Corporate Family (translated title), based on the popular webtoon of the same name.
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Song would play the title role, a loyal corporate stooge who is framed for embezzlement and then killed, only to be reborn as the youngest son of the family that rubbed him out. Also eyeing roles in the series are veteran actor Lee Sung-min (The Man Standing Next) and Shin Hyun-been of Hospital Playlist, as a Seoul Central District prosecutor.
Thirty-Nine
Thirty-Nine is an upcoming series that will be fronted by actresses Son Ye-jin (Crash Landing on You) and Jeon Mi-do (Hospital Playlist) as it tells the story of the daily lives and romantic challenges of three women, among them a dermatologist and acting teachers, who are about to turn 40.
The 12-episode show will be produced by Lotte Cultureworks, while Yoo Young-ah, known for Encounter, will pen the screenplay, and Kim Sang-ho, the co-director of Run On , will helm the production. Yeon Woo-jin, recently on screens in Undercover, and ex-Wonder Girls member Ahn So-hee, seen in Train to Busan, have also been offered parts in the show.
