Nick Cheung, Louis Koo, and Francis Ng Join “Line Walker” Movie
Undoubtedly one of the most popular dramas in the last couple of years, Line Walker <使徒行者> will be adapted into a movie. With Charmaine Sheh (佘詩曼) remaining as the lead actress, the movie will feature Louis Koo (古天樂), Nick Cheung (張家輝), and Francis Ng (吳鎮宇). Unfortunately, Raymond Lam (林峯) will not be reprising his role.
Joining the project are ex-TVB producer Tommy Leung (梁家樹) and Wong Jing (王晶), who is stepping in as the movie’s consultant.
Similar to the original plot of the series, Charmaine is laden with the task of finding the six mysterious undercover agent. Helping her will be Q-sir (Francis Ng), who is a smart and quick-witted cop.
Infiltrating the triads once again, Charmaine will face the dangers of the underground world and will be thrown into the middle of two notorious gang members: Louis Koo– who plays an unconventional drug lord whose actions are always a mystery, and Nick Cheung– a careful, tactical, and coldblooded killer who does not let anything stop his goals.
During the operation, Charmaine receives a shocking text stating that the sixth undercover is either Louis or Nick. Determined to finish her mission, Charmaine throws her life on the line and becomes tangled with the triads.
Slated to be one of the biggest productions next year, Line Walker the movie received a $85 million HKD budget to accommodate filming in Brazil. The cast was reportedly compensated handsomely, with Nick, Louis, and Francis receiving $20 million HKD, $15 million HKD, and $10 million HKD respectively.
Source: ihtkv.com
This article is written by Su for JayneStars.com.
Why start a movie when the original cast is not in it?
@krolxl They want the views, just like with come home love 2
what happened to cheuk sir???
@hamster37 Right? This is disrespectful to the original cast. Unless they decline filming.
@krolxl agree this very disrespectful especially for michael miu who is one of the main characters who have contributed to the huge succes of this drama,without him i would not see this movie in the cinema,i rather download it to support cheuk sir.
This sounds so lame, if original cast is not involved no point in making it.
@mulder99 No point in watching it now…
Is it me or does this picture of Louis looks like an elf or the green guy from Star Wars?
It does not sound very interesting to me with a similar plot.
I hope Charmaine Sheh will also get a good remuneration for being the 1st lead actress in this movie.
If they’re gonna change the whole entire actors and actress and just leaving 1 or 2 what’s the point of calling it “Line Walker”. Is Benz Hui gonna be in it too? I understand from Raymond’s point that audiences wouldn’t enjoy watching the movie unfold everything in 2 hours. But it’s even worse, if the audience watch a ‘classic’ drama become distorted. Maybe they could work on the movie on how Bao Seed and Ding Jie work together to crack the case together with their onscreen chemistry too. Uncovering all the other ‘UC’ together using gimmicks and what happen to Benz Hui mystery?
If everything is gonna be different no link nothing, then don’t call it a sequel or adapted. Must well call it ‘street walker’ . At least don’t give audience the disappointment seeing the wonderful drama and the heart beating part of Bao Seed and Ding Jie finally ending up together to Ding Jie being alone.
I suppose Cheuk Sir is living the life somewhere with his wife. And Bao Seed is probably too busy expanding his foot massage business. Or he died from a brain tumour. Will Raymind be in the drama sequel? They might have to kill him off if he’s in neither and let Ding Jie find another man (course she won’t be truly happy coz Bao Seed is the love of her life).
This sounds more like a remake of “Line Walker” with more movie star at the helms. Though I like all 3 new additions, why would I sit through 2 hours of same plot? Even if they throw in a twist at the end where Francis Ng is a mole in the police force, it’s still a copy and lamer version of LW the series. Lol.
Seriously, these same actors again? Doesn’t anyone get sick of them? yawn zzzzzzz. . ….
Pretty much this is just another way for TVB to milk the Line Walker franchise just like they did with Laughing Gor a couple years back. Though the movie is almost guaranteed to garner huge box office sales due to the cast (and the series’ fanbase), there will unfortunately be no substance, just like the other TV series to movie adaptations that have been made recently (i.e. Triumph in the Skies and Return of the Cuckoo). Seems to be the “in” thing nowadays to take advantage of audiences’ sentimentality through remakes of popular series…
@llwy12 Honestly, LW was just so-so. It might be a “gem” just bc TVB series had been so dull for the past years. With that being said, I just can’t imagine this will do well on audiences’ sentimental alone. They pretty much replaced everyone except for Charm. I like Charm’s acting BUT she didn’t carry the whole series herself. The ship between her and Bao Seed, and her interaction with Chuk Sir made the series. I feel the audiences were more interested in that than just seeing her on the small screen. You take the two males out, can Charm rack in the viewerships?
This is just a laziness in TVB or whoever is champion this movie. There are so many other angels they could’ve take and milk the original characters of LW. E.g. a prequel on Foon Hei Gor would have been more original and entertaining.
@jjwong
Cannot agree more.
@jjwong I completely agree with you….but looking at the previous TV series made into movies — Turning Point (Laughing Gor movie), Triumph in the Skies, Return of the Cuckoo — the audience sentimentality thing obviously worked based on how well those movies did at the box office (enough people were willing to fork up money to go buy tickets and watch those movies in theaters). Of course, other audiences (such as those who never even watched the series, those who did watch but were indifferent to the series, etc.) undoubtedly contributed to the box office receipts as well, but a huge majority are the fans/audience base that the original series garnered.
Besides, at the end of the day, all the directors/production company care about is whether the movie makes money – and obviously these movies rake in the dough, despite the fact that all of them were panned and criticized for various reasons (i.e lacking substance, crappy storyline, cast completely changed, etc. etc.). It’s not like the producers care what audiences want anyway – the way they see it, by virtue of buying tickets to watch the movie and thereby helping them rake in huge box office receipts, audiences are telling them through action that they support it….
I personally wasn’t keen on the Line Walker series in the first place, so to me, makes no difference what they decide to do (though I do feel sorry for fans of the series, since I know how it feels to watch your favorite show get butchered)….but the piece I AM interested in is the box office component, since that will impact whether they continue to go down the TV series to movie path, especially since there are a few such projects already announced but not yet in production…if this movie tanks, perhaps it will motivate them to scrap their plans for the other ones…
@llwy12 You’re right that regardless how much we complain and scream at the poor script, crappy characters and casts, the movie makers don’t give a rats’ butt as long as they can rack in the sell. However, I personally think regardless if this movie tank or succeed, the TV-to-movie path will always be popular/#1 choice when a TV series is (remotely) popular.
To me, the 3 series you mentioned are a little different than this one. Different in term that they have a heavier draw/connection. TP focal was Laughing Gor, the movies surrounded him. Cool Mo and Sam Gor were the center of TitS2, the movies had them. RotC was on Chilam/Charm ship, the movie ran with that angel. As I stated previously, LW wasn’t just about Charm so this so called LW film isn’t really LW. It’s like making a movie based on The Menu with only Catherine Chau xD
@jjwong LOL…true, true…though the full cast of the LW movie hasn’t been officially announced yet so it’s possible other artists will be reprising their roles as well, not just Charmaine. Actually, this news about Wong Jing helming the LW movie and Nick, Louis, and Francis joining the cast is ‘old news’, as the information came out over a month ago (looks like the source of this article picked up the information late perhaps…) – the news came out alongside the announcement of Shaw Brothers’ plans to remake The Greed of Man into a movie as well (argh!). I remember that article had said that both Charmaine and Benz will be reprising their roles, though at that time, it wasn’t confirmed whether Nick/Louis/Francis would actually participate (I don’t think it’s confirmed right now either, as most of the information thus far has been one-sided from Shaw Brothers). Let’s see if more concrete details come out about the movie.
Btw, slightly off topic….speaking of The Menu movie version – who knows, maybe the focus will be mainly on Catherine this time around. Filming has already started and so far, only Catherine and Greg are confirmed as for sure reprising their roles – the rest of the cast is nowhere to be seen (I’ve been monitoring the artists’ weibos and most of them are involved with other projects, some long-term)…not a good sign at all. I sure hope Stephen Shiu and his company don’t botch this one as well!
@llwy12 Yea, I hope there’s more about LW as far as cast besides this article’s content.
As much as I like CC in tM, idk about a movie just on her. I like my Gregory and his rom-line lol.
The picture of these three dudes look like that of extra celestial aliens with Mr. Spock (or Yoda?)in the middle.
So these are HK film industry”s best leading men? Gulp!
@aiya Lol, I agree Louis is strange looking in this picture, but Nick and Francis are normal looking IMO. I rather have “alien” leading men who are good at acting than chok-faces who can’t even conviencingly deliver a line. On a funny note, Yoda and Spock are extremely popular and infamous so being compare at their status maybe isn’t such a bad deal after all lol.
With the addition of Nick, Louis and Francis you know the cast is powerful and strong! But the storyline is recycled of the original drama but just with a different cast.. I really enjoyed Line Walker original, I hope they don’t mess it up now it’s a movie.