Lau Ka-ho Announces “Heart of Greed 3” and “Beyond the Realm of Conscience 2”
TVB producer Lau Ka-ho (劉家豪), who returned to TVB earlier this year after a three-year stint with Now TV, has announced two upcoming TVB titles under his wing. At an employee award ceremony hosted by TVB yesterday, the producer-turned-production director announced that Heart of Greed 3 <溏心風暴3> and Beyond the Realm of Conscience 2 <深宮計> are currently in development.
The first series in the Heart of Greed franchise, released in 2007, was a critical and popular success, garnering numerous awards at the TVB Anniversary Awards. The follow-up sister series, repackaged under the name Moonlight Resonance <溏心風暴之家好月圓>, aired the following year to even higher numbers, averaging 35 viewership rating points per episode, and peaking at 50. 2009’s Beyond the Realm of Conscience <宮心計>, which was produced by Lau’s wife Mui Siu-ching (梅小青), rivaled Moonlight Resonance’s success, also peaking to 50 points.
According to Lau, Heart of Greed 3 and Beyond the Realm of Conscience 2 will be slated for about 40 episodes each. He shared that TVB has begun working on the scripts for both.
On when he plans to release Heart 3 and Beyond 2, Lau said, “I’ve just returned to TVB so I’m still trying to get my crew together. We’ve only just started writing the script, so I don’t think production will start until another seven to eight months.”
Will Lau call back the original actors from both series to return in the sequels? “Most of them, but some actors have already left, such as Lee Heung-kam (李香琴). I don’t think she’s able to film dramas anymore. Besides, I do think it’s time to get some new actors in.”
Rumors say that Ngo Ka-nin (敖嘉年) has recommended himself to an audition. “I will not name names, but many actors have approached us about it. This is great encouragement for Mui Siu-ching and I.”
Lau and Mui were promoted to drama production directors after returning to TVB, thus putting them on equal footing as Catherine Tsang (曾麗珍). “Let’s not talk about this,” said Lau. “Our only goal is to up our game and make better dramas. Comparisons aren’t needed. Catherine is a hard-worker. I especially need to thank [former TVB chairman] Norman Leung (梁乃鵬). When we left [TVB] four years ago, he bid us farewell. When we came back, he welcomed us. It warms my heart.”
Will Lau increase the production budget for Heart 3 and Beyond 2? “It all depends on the script. If the script is no good, no money can save it.” Does the studio plan to cast non-TVB A-listers in these productions? “We’ll concentrate on getting the original cast back first. Everything else will have to depend on the roles.”
Source: Oriental Daily
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
Seriously!?
wooo! Cant wait!!!! <3 2017 anniversary series for sure?
@yummiki24 Well 2017 will be to soon, I think it’ll probably be 2018 or maybe 2019
yayy!!! hope that most of the old cast can come back.
LOVE the HOG series!!!! Such memorable characters and great cast!!! Not a fan of BTROC though so not excited a bout that one. Just hope they can bring the original cast back for HOG.
I wonder if Realm of conscience will have the original cast since Tavia didnt renew contract with TVB in wonder who’s gonna replace who …just hope that they dont add Grace and Sisley cause they will ruin it for sure!!!
@sherla1019 Actually, the translation left out some stuff. In the actual interview, when asked about bringing the original cast back for both series, Lau Ka Ho had only said that he would certainly try, but he also felt it was necessary to “cultivate the company’s newcomers” (in other words, more emphasis was placed on using TVB’s current artists than on recruiting former artists back). You guys know what this means right? Yup, we can expect to see either Grace Chan or Sisely Choi (or maybe even both) having significant roles in either or both series….
Blegh. Terrible! An addicting show purely due to great casting and overused cliche plots. Neither shows were great – they were considered great because they knew how to use GREAT cliffhangers & good casting choices. Thought the couple coming back would produce something new, but of course, they still rely on methodical old routines. So disappointed.
@coralie I’m not excited either, since I also never liked either series. Heart of Greed was ok – didn’t ‘like’ the series by any means but it was a decent watch, mostly because of the veterans. Same can’t be said about Moonlight Resonance though – that series was absolute torture to sit through and I actually found myself forwarding through most of it….biggest problem was that Lau Ka Ho went overboard with the family infighting thing, which pretty much happened on every episode — sorry, but there is only so much crying and arguing and people screaming at each other that I’m able to tolerate in one series (I was especially annoyed with Linda Chung crying in practically EVERY episode, both in MR as well as HOG). Beyond the Realm of Conscience was even more of a joke…Tavia wasn’t convincing as a villain and Charmaine played the same goody-goody charcter that she had already done a dozen times prior (plus the whole setup of the series reminded me too much of Perish in the Name of Love — a series that I hate with a passion, lol.)…ended up skipping a lot of BTROC too. To be honest, I actually feel like LKH and MSC had already lost their touch years ago. I used to enjoy watching their series back in the 80s and 90s, but most of the ones they did in the post-2000s era were not good (with a few exceptions of course) – it seemed that they switched to relying on big name cast coupled with gimmick-filled plots to attract audiences rather than truly focusing on the script and giving us a good story with fine acting. Will probably end up skipping both sequels….
why not start a new series instead of using the same name but different cast and story?
@m0m0 Riding on HOG and BTROC’s popularity. Promotional tactics.
only if most original cast are back otherwise pointless to even call it a sequel….
Not much of a fan of recent TVB sequels because of how badly they’re done and with cast changes BUT if it’s Lau Kar Ho and Mui Siu Ching producing, I am pretty sure that the quality from the original series will be retained. Looking forward to these!!!
@linvin8 Actually, not really, at least the way I see it. Both LKH and MSC weren’t able to maintain “quality from the original series” in their previous franchises and still fell into the usual TVB pattern of making crappy sequels that essentially piggy-backed on the popularity of the originals and therefore didn’t need to be made in the first place, IMO. Of course, if they truly intend for these 2 new series to be sequels, I’m assuming that they are going to work with the scriptwriters from the original series (Cheung Wah Biu / Sit Ka Wah for HOG/MR and Ka Wai Nam / Choi Ting Ting for BTROC), which means from a story perspective, there won’t be much to get excited over (pretty much the same contrived plot and gimmicks we’re used to seeing). If that’s the case, the only ‘hope’ for those who were fans of the original series is for them to bring the original casts back, which is highly doubtful given majority of those artists already left TVB (some not on good terms either)…plus, based on LKH’s response, looks like he doesn’t have a whole lot of confidence that he’ll be able to re-assemble the original cast either, which means the possibility of utilizing TVB’s current artists and also casting newbies is very high. If that’s the case, might as well just make brand new series instead of piggybacking on past success. With all that said….since filming is not slated to start until end of this year or even early next year (based on the 7-8 month timeline LKH gave), who knows what will happen between now and then…
Personally, I also feel a bit disappointed that LKH and MSC will essentially be doing the same types of series they did prior to leaving TVB. You would think that after spending a few years outside of TVB, they would return with better stuff and possibly change up things a bit, especially with the promotion to Catherine Tsang’s level (which means they would have more of a say in the production process and how the drama department is run). I guess it’s too much to ask given TVB’s work environment and the way they operate….
@llwy12
Is Cheung Wah Biu back with TVB? I feel his scriptwriting style is a little bit repetitive but it usually gets the highest ratings.
@incipio No, Cheung Wah Biu is working in Mainland now. He had left TVB years back to work for Next TV in Taiwan, but seeing how that station went belly up several years ago, he shifted his career to Mainland like so many other HK behind-the-scenes people have done. I’m not even sure if he’d be willing to return or if Lau Ka Ho even asked him — but unless LKH is planning to write the script for the HOG sequel himself, I’m assuming his first choice on scriptwriter to work with for the project would be CWB.
I also feel CWB’s style is repetitive (though it also depends on which producer he works with, since it’s no secret that majority of the time, the producer is also involved with editing the script and even rewriting certain parts) but given how few “golden” scriptwriters that TVB has left (pretty much only a handful), makes the most sense to invite him back given his involvement with so many highly rated series — most notably the Heart of Greed and Rosy Business franchises (and that’s only counting recent years, not all the series he was involved with prior to that back in the 70s/80s/90s).
i am not really a big fan of either. wasn’t impressed with the story or the cast. i like the older vets though.
OMG YAY! I loved these series, hopefully it all works out and everything goes smoothly so that there’s a high certainty these series will definitely air, also if not all, most of the original casts comes back.
Possibly these sequels could maybe put tvb back on the map?
Hope Charmaine Seh will come back miss her
These were not so great plot wise. Series reboot already??
I STILL need closure for Armed Reaction!!!!! Can’t they recast Joyce Tang and her now teenage/grown up daughter? WHY???? and Detective Investigation Files – it has been almost 2 decades.
They should have just gave up on the HOG and BTROC name and started from a fresh table. Just like Carol (Dodo) Cheng has commented regarding people begging her to film War of Genders S2, sometimes it’s just better to leave it as it is. People will have high expectation and it’s pretty certain that it won’t reach it. Why turn it into a franchise when you could just start a new work?
TVB doesn’t have many good actors and actresses left. Experienced veteran actresses are leaving and those inexperienced Miss Hong Kong winners are pushed to main roles by force. That’s not how you save your series, that’s how you kill them. It’s really sad to see how these Miss Hong Kongs are being pushed to main roles while there are plenty of more experienced actors. And TVB trying to gain popularity by riding on the gossips of their actors is just cringeworthy.
I wonder if Liza Wang will join the cast since she feels like a person who would fit dramas like these and also one of those remaining veteran actresses in TVB.
Seriously, I have lost my patience for TVB sequels. They don’t live up to the original and they ruin the relationship and affection of the original characters who we love by killing them off because the actors/actresses cannot return and then pairing them up with new people.
The only franchise sequel that I would actually anticipate would be the eternally frozen Rosy Business 3, which I hope to see before I die.
As for the rest, there is really no more story to BTROC after the ending. Lee Yi is the emperor but Lau Sam Ho. Are we to have a sequel where 30 eps is devoted to Lam Sam Ho trying to get the amnesic guy (sorry, forgot Kevin’s character’s name) to remember her? Or will the storyline be about Yiu Kam Ling gaining her sanity back and then plotting to kill everyone again? There really is no more story to it.
So they might well as start with a totally different storyline, setting and characters without using BTROC for promotion.
TVB is running out of leads but they do have some new ones that they can groom. I mean back then with “Eternal Happiness”, the whole main cast were virtually newbies then. The acting wasn’t great but they still made it work and the series enjoyable. I would rather TVB put some creativity into their writing rather than fitting new faces to an overused plot template.
@elizabeth LOL…well, for BTROC, they could cast Grace Chan in the lead role and continue milking the couple thing with Kevin post-Blue Veins – perfect opportunity right there to “nurture newbies” (as Lau Ka Ho put it) and at the same time, gain some free publicity with the ‘couple collaboration’ for the series just like with BV currently. And for HOG 3, they could cast Sisley Choi as one of the leads and she could be the next Linda Chung, except instead of crying in every episode, she can scream her head off in each episode – again, fits in perfectly given all the yelling/screaming/arguing that was a ‘staple’ in that series as well as its sequel.
All joking aside….the problem is that TVB will never be able to produce great series again unless they change the restrictive environment in which they operate and their management go through mentality shifts where they are actually willing to let go of power. Back when the HKTV thing occurred, many people were doubtful that HKTV would be able to produce good series because most of the artists and behind-the-scenes people were from TVB and so everything would just be the same…well, not only was that ‘doubt’ proven to be wrong (which was a testament to how much creativity an unrestricted environment can bring forth), it also showed that there truly was a lot of talent left at TVB, it’s just that TVB didn’t know how to utilize that talent properly. This is honestly why I wasn’t excited at all with Lau Ka Ho and Mui Siu Ching returning to TVB, since it was pretty obvious from the start that they’re just going to keep doing what they did previously, except perhaps now add the Mainland element to it . At the end of the day, this IS TVB – no matter how much talent someone has, doesn’t do much good if that talent isn’t properly utilized.
@chestnut Dodo Cheng has always been a wise person who doesn’t give into pressure easily, so not surprised she refused to get on the ‘sequel’ bandwagon like everyone else seems to do (this is one of the aspects of Dodo’s personality that I’ve always liked about her) – kudos to her! Nowadays, sequels are talked about as though it’s the most natural thing that needs to happen with every single series – I guess some people will never understand the concept of leaving originals alone. As for the comment about whether Liza Wang would join the cast – I highly doubt it….Wong Jing is currently doing that reboot of The Shell Game, which Liza Wang actually starred in back in the early 80s alongside Patrick Tse, yet she’s not even participating in that series despite Patrick himself returning and reprising his role. A lot of times, established artists participate in certain series not because they like the script or want to work with certain artists, but rather because of some type of connection, usually to the producer – Liza has a connection to Wong Jing (hence the main reason why she filmed Master of Destiny for him last year), but none whatsoever to LKH and MSC, so there’s no reason for her to participate IMO…
@incipio By the way – speaking of scriptwriter Cheung Wah Biu….I re-read the interview he did with Mingpao 5 years ago and if his sentiments from that interview haven’t changed, then I doubt he is going to come back, at least not for Lau Ka Ho, since it sounded like they weren’t on the greatest of terms.
@llwy12 TVB probably has cash flow problems. It is just a matter of time before the company winds up.
@kk12345 Nah, TVB has plenty of money, they just don’t invest it in areas where they should. In fact, there were reports out recently that TVB continues to make money year after year, it’s just that they make less than what they used to in the past. There are definitely no cash flow issues with them, just incompetent management who don’t know what the hell they are doing and frankly should all be fired in my opinion….
@llwy12 Well there is no smoke without fire. Agree with you on the incompetent management.