News bites: July 26, 2015

by awcoconuts

• Lee Joon (Heard It Through the Grapevine) has confirmed Key of Life with Yoo Hae-jin, the Japanese remake movie about a struggling actor and a mobster who switch lives. Yoo plays the gangster who is able to leave the underworld by pretending to be an actor, while Lee has signed on as the struggling thespian who gets mistaken for a thug. From production company Yong Film (Beauty Inside, The Target), filming on Key of Life begins at the end of August. [TV Report]
• The Cha brothers continue to cast away: Im Joo-hwan (currently playing the eerily devoted husband/brother-in-law/police officer in Oh My Ghostess) has also joined Because We Love. In the film being produced by his elder brother, Cha Tae-hyun (The Producers) is a genius songwriter who becomes love’s messenger after getting into some sort of accident. He’ll hop into the bodies of those who are having troubles with love and will help them (lol at the thought of Cha playing a mouthy, body-inhabiting Cupid). Im will play Cha’s friend and classmate, a producer who harbors a sweet, unrequited crush on Seo Hyun-jin (Let’s Eat 2). [Joongang]


Im Joo-hwan, Nam Ji-hyun

• Nam Ji-hyun (What’s With This Family) is positively considering the role of mapmaker’s daughter in Gosanja, the upcoming film about a cartographer (Cha Seung-won) in the Joseon-era who creates the greatest and most comprehensive map of Joseon. Nam’s great and I hope she accepts, but she’ll have to decide soon, as cameras will begin rolling in mid-August. [TV Report]
• Kim Ga-eun (I’ll Take a Serving of You) has been cast as one of the leading characters in JTBC’s Awl. She’ll play a temp worker opposite Ji Hyun-woo in the drama adaptation of the webtoon about union workers fighting back against upper management. Awl airs in the fall. [Star News]


Kim Ga-eun, Han Sang-jin

• Han Sang-jin (Hyde, Jekyll, Me) is joining SBS’s upcoming drama Six Flying Dragons. In the star-packed sageuk, Han will play the chief monk at a grossly corrupt Buddhist temple. He has an insatiable thirst for money, and while he won’t use brute force, he’ll do just about anything else in order to grow his wealth. Six Flying Dragons will air on Mondays and Tuesdays in the fall. [Osen]
• Oooh, the plot for Twenty Again thickens (or gets juicier). Park Hyo-joo (Secret Door) plays a “match made in heaven” with the estranged husband of Choi Ji-woo. She’s the youngest daughter of the chairman of the university where Choi Won-young (the husband) works. Park believes Choi Won-young is her soulmate and is so similar in personality that she’s described as a female version of him. Meanwhile, Noh Young-hak (Masked Prosecutor) will play Choi Ji-woo’s hot dance sunbae who overflows with charisma. No fair, she’s already paired with Lee Sang-yoooooon! Twenty Again airs after Oh My Ghostess on tvN. [Star News, TV Report]


Noh Young-hak, Park Hyo-joo

• The production company behind Doctor Stranger, Aura Media, is joining forces with China’s Crown Media to produce 5 consecutive Chinese-Korean dramas. The leading role in the first of the five, Beneath the Black Moonlight, has gone to Winner’s Nam Tae-hyun. The show will be a young adult horror story about art college friends who search for a mountain cabin together, but when they find it, it sounds as though it would’ve been better if they hadn’t. Beneath the Black Moonlight will be directed by Lee Jung-pyo (God’s Quiz 2) and will air before the end of the year. [Ten Asia]
• She won me over with her ditzy and horny character in Surplus Princess, and now Jo Boa has been cast in quite the opposite role in Love Cells 2: She’ll play the noble and pure first love of Im Seul-ong. The cast just had their first script read and cameras will begin rolling for the web drama shortly. [Busan Today]


Jo Boa, Sohn Eun-seo

• KBS’s upcoming fall show has undergone yet another name change; first called Killing Mother-in-Law, then Taming Mother-in-Law, the drama’s now called The Odd Daughter-in-Law. So the early titles were disrespectful but what’s with turning it around on the daughter-in-law and calling her peculiar? Hrmph! Although I wouldn’t feel comfortable being discourteous towards Go Doo-shim (High Society), who plays the lead MIL, either. Sohn Eun-seo (Twinkle Twinkle My Heart) has been added to the cast and she will play Go’s daughter (and sister-in-law to Dasom). The family comedy follows I Remember You in August. [Asia E, Chosun]

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