Source: Apple Daily, Next Magazine, TVBChannel
Translated by: aZnangel @ http://asianuniverse.net/forums/



Fala Chen leading role in July's 'Triumph in the Skies II'; Sammul Chan may be back for sequel

[Apple Daily] Ten years ago Triumph in the Skies starring Francis Ng, Joe Ma, Flora Chan and Myolie Wu started the surge of handsome pilots. Last year, TVB had plans to start shooting the 40 episode sequel (Triumph in the Skies II) in May, but because of schedule conflicts with Francis, it was said the schedule was pushed back to mid-July. For the sequel, the leads will be Francis, Chilam Cheung, Myolie Wu and Fala Chen.

When speaking of Francis delaying the shoot, TVB executive Tommy Leung didn't deny, and expressed there are several reasons to the delay. He said the series will start mid-July and shooting will take place in England, France and Taiwan. Indeed, this is a high budgeted production. Earlier it was said Ricky Wong intends to shoot a similar series, Tommy expressed its good to have competition, but TVB won't care about what others do, just do their best in their own part.

Fala Chen joins the TITS2 cast as one of the lead actresses because she's been having amazing momentum lately. In Mainland's Huading Award Hundred Artist Rankings, Fala ranks 13th place. First place is Yang Mi, but Fala is the highest ranking Hong Kong artist. In regards to her achievement, Fala accepted an interview over the phone, she said she hopes to have more Mainland productions, but the most important is to have more opportunities for challenging roles. When speaking of joining the TITS2 as the lead, Fala said she anticipates working with both Francis and Chilam on a TV series. She collaborated with Francis before in a film, and really admires his acting. She hopes she can learn something from him in this collaboration. Fala also expressed she hopes to have the opportunity to play a female pilot because it's hot looking.

Sammul Chan may come back for sequel

[Next Magazine] Since TVB gave up their favorite Sammul Chan, he has been having a smooth development in Mainland. Three years ago, his popular hit Schemes of A Beauty got him an amazing salary increase of 20,000 RMB per episode. Now, aside from CTI's Ricky Wong having interest in him, Sammul's former company TVB also intends to make friends with him again. It was understood, Sammul's cousin is TVB's new boss 'The Shell King' Chan Kwok Keung and this doubles the chances for Sammul to make a comeback. He was offered 20,500 HKD per episode, in hope he'll be willing to come back for TITS2.

Since Sammul wasn't TVB's 'biological son', he had been neglected all along. "TVB wants to promote their own people, and since Sammul wasn't willing to sign a management contract, even if The Academy was well-received, he had little screen time in the sequel. That year at the TVB Anniversary Awards, Sammul wasn't even part of the nominations."

"In fact, Ricky Wong personally flew over to Shanghai, where Sammul was, to discuss a contract with him. Ricky offered him 10,000 HKD per episode, which is tenfold of what TVB pays, but at the time Sammul had a few Mainland series on hand, so he had to turn Ricky down."

"Now that TVB is lacking Siu Sang and FaDans and its a mess internally. TVB's new boss, Chan Kwok Keung, is in fact Sammul's cousin and so he's considered 'one of them'. So, Chan has sent out people to contact Sammul, asking him to participate in TVB's grand production TITS2. Coincidentally, TITS2 has been postponed, let's hope Sammul has time on his schedule!"