Dicky Cheung’s “The Learning Curve of a Warlord” Not On TVB’s Anniversary Drama List
A TVB insider leaked a list of the company’s scheduled anniversary dramas for 2018, but one particular big production was not in sight.
This year, TVB will commence its annual anniversary drama broadcast after the airing of Story of Yanxi Palace <延禧攻略> and Another Era <再創世紀>, both which will finish its runs in October 2018. According to the insider, TVB’s planned anniversary dramas include OMG, Your Honour <是咁的，法官閣下…> starring Ben Wong (黃智賢), Eddie Kwan (關禮傑), and Grace Wong (王君馨); Fist Fight <兄弟> starring Vincent Wong (王浩信), Mat Yeung (楊明), and Philip Ng (伍允龍); and Life on the Line <跳躍生命線> starring Joe Ma (馬德鐘) and Matthew Ho (何廣沛).
Of the three, Life on the Line will be the first to air, succeeding Story of Yanxi Palace’s time slot on October 8, 2018.
However, The Learning Curve of a Warlord <大帥哥>—Dicky Cheung’s (張衛健) comeback TVB drama which was shot in 2017—is not on this list.
The Learning Curve of a Warlord is Dicky’s first TVB drama in 20 years, his last TVB drama being 1996’s Journey to the West <西遊記>. When Dicky’s casting was first announced in February 2017, a press conference was held to commemorate his return. TVB executives Catherine Tsang (曾勵珍) and Virginia Lok (樂易玲) both attended to welcome him.
At the time, it was speculated that Warlord would become 2017’s anniversary drama, but because filming did not complete until September 9th that year, producers pushed the broadcast date back to leave room for a post-production period.
Warlord being absent on the list of TVB anniversary dramas was unexpected—in an earlier promotional video that aired in both Hong Kong and Singapore, Warlord was included in the list of upcoming TVB dramas to air in the latter half of 2018. Other dramas included Big White Duel <白色強人>, The Ghetto – Fabulous Lady <危城First Lady>, and The Offliners <堅離地愛堅離地>.
TVB has not offered comments about this leaked list.
Source: HK01.com
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
wow is it that bad that they wouldnt even air it during those dead months? From the trailers it seems to be a ott drama. Shame dicky return drama is this.
Or it is so good they are saving it for later.
@funnlim
It has got a Tony Hung in it so it can’t be that good…
Well as a fan of Dickey, I was looking forward to it at first but the trailer looks bad.Like really bad. It looks like a parody/comedy drama and we know TVB’s sense of humour is terrible after the disaster that is “An General, a Scholar and a Eunuch”.
The cast isn’t great either. Not good enough for Dickey anyway. This series was announced quite suddenly so porbably all the better actors/actresses were already doing other dramas so this is all that was available I guess. I mean Sisley, Vivien and Zoie – these girls aren’t even fadan. Only Raymond Cho is arguably good enough.
This looks like a rushed job.
@birdy2415
An General, a Scholar and a Eunuch was actually good. i found it very funny.
@m0m0
Nah. It was terrible. Crap script and led by one of the worst actors ever Edwin Siu……
@jimmyszeto
Slightly disagree. Edwin is a solid actor (by current standards) but the script was just horrendous. Could barely get past the first episode but carried on because Edwin, Raymond and Kristal are solid actors.
The only scene remotely funny was them throwing up due to motion sickness, and the ice-cream scene. Matthew was the only good thing about the serie.
@birdy2415
Wow..‘Edwin is a solid actor’. Now I have heard it all….
@jimmyszeto By current standards, yes. Better than Benjamin, Tony, Pakho, Jason and he even has more facial expressions than Ron.
That sucks for Dicky
it is very sad to see a chinese drama as lineup for tvb anniversary
@m0m0
This series need to be frozen. Crap cast and monkey king humour from the trailers I’ve seen so far….
@jimmyszeto
yea, i saw it yesterday and was thinking of the same thing. who’s idea is that? stupid to think that people still buy it 20 years after. don’t like sisley choi either
Wow…this must be the weakest anniversary series lineup I’ve seen in years! Are there truly no other series that TVB could’ve put in the anniversary timeslot? If this is all TVB has to offer — well, all I can say is…good luck because they are definitely going to need it given the direction they are heading in….
As for the Warlord series – not surprised that TVB isn’t airing it, as the series truly does look like crap based on the trailer. It’s a shame that D-icky chose to come back for this garbage – this is why I hate it when well-known veteran artists return because it’s 100% given that TVB is going to put them in a crappy series. I honestly wish he had been more selective. All the more reason why these veterans need to stop “doing favors” for TVB by returning to film for them pretty much carte blanche (putting their own careers / reputations on the line in the process) — unless they do what Anthony Wong did and actually dictate demands that need to be met before returning….or Sheren Tang’s route in being extremely selective and laying down specific requirements, then going with the company that is able to fulfill them…otherwise, I would rather they not return at all…
@llwy12
This year’s best actor/best actress awards will be as meaningless as the JSG best singer awards. They have cancelled the awards ceremonies abroad. It’s time to cancel the Hong Kong version…
@jimmyszeto I agree….I already thought last year’s anniversary awards show was horrible (and what made it worse was that last year was the big 50th anniversary – yet it was one of the worst award shows in its history)….this year’s show might actually take the “worst of the worst” crown, lol…
And JSG should’ve been cancelled a long time ago – that joke of an awards show has gotten to the point of being beyond embarrassing….TVB needs to either cancel it or rename it The Voice / EEG Awards….
@llwy12
I think this years Best Actor/Actress award has already been won. Don’t know who it will go to but they will hand it to the bigger drama such as ‘Deep Beyond’ or ‘Threshold Again’. Can’t really award it to actor/actresses from cheap family series that the mainland audience do not care about….
@jimmyszeto
I heard that Another Era isn’t doing too well in Mainland – the ratings are super low and the overall feedback is bad. Some media outlets were trying to “analyze” it and pretty much came to the conclusion that: 1) Mainland audiences can’t relate to the series because it’s about HK’s finance world and the financial crisis, which no one over there experienced so of course they don’t care, 2) the cast barely has anyone they know (only household name in there is Roger Kwok) and the 2 Mainland actors they chose to add to the cast are minor actors that even Mainland audiences don’t know who they are (some Mainland audiences were saying to give them back Gallen Lo, lol), 3) sequels usually don’t do well over there, especially sequels about subjects they are not interested in (now AE were a palace drama, then maybe it might fare better…), 4) stiff competition from Mainland series currently airing, which have cast they are familiar with and like, in a genre they are used to (costume dramas).
Let’s see how things pan out over the next couple weeks. If AE completely bombs in Mainland, then most likely Deep in the Realm of Conscience will be the frontrunner come awards time, since that series (unfortunately) did relatively well over there and in HK (I personally thought the series sucked of course, but hey my opinion doesn’t matter).
@llwy12
yeah, natalie tong is really not on par for best lead actress yet and she wasn’t even the lead for the drama she won with. vincent wong’s okay but still bit too raw for BA
I love Dickey, but he should’ve never returned to TVB unless it’s was a joint production with Mainland.
TVB can’t make any decent dramas on their own anymore.
at this point, they should be reducing the amount of dramas, increasing the budget, getting some actually good scripts, and focus on trying to export their shows.
no point in producing 10 pieces of trash
@terrycrews19 Well, part of TVB’s downfall for me is having 30-35 episodes of absolute trash. They keep dragging out what would have been decent drama.
Surprisingly their 20-episode series have been more tolerable in my opinion (not all of them though).