Yoyo Mung to Star in HKTV’s “Skynet”
Yoyo Mung (蒙嘉慧) and Frankie Lam (林文龍) will star in HKTV’s new series Skynet <天網>. Yoyo expressed excitement over her new project, but kept mum on her rumored 7-digit salary. Both Yoyo and Frankie showed their support for the new TV station, confident that the Hong Kong government will grant them the free-to-air license soon.
Since ending her contract with TVB in March, Yoyo has been rumored to be in negotiations with rival station HKTV. Yoyo admitted to the reports, saying that she is simply looking for a platform to pursue acting and will consider any and all offers.
At today’s press event, HKTV officially announced Yoyo’s participation. HKTV Chairman Ricky Wong (王維基) and CEO To Wai Bing (杜惠冰) attended the event. Both presented a birthday cake to Yoyo to celebrate her upcoming 40th birthday on August 3.
Yoyo has signed a per-series contract with HKTV, at a rumored price of $1 million HKD for a 20-episode series. When asked about HKTV’s lack of broadcast license, Yoyo said, “That is not something for us to worry about. The most important thing is the work process. Throughout all these years of filming, I have never once worried about when a series will make it on the air. The broadcast date would not matter at all if we are unhappy about filming in any way.” Asked to confirm her rumored salary, Yoyo replied, “Let’s not worry about that. I will only say that I am absolutely satisfied by my compensation!”
Skynet is a cyber crime series that also stars Frankie Lam. The drama will focus on various computer crime cases such as cyber bullying, cyber fraud, and violations of cyber security. Yoyo and Frankie will play members of the Technology Crime Division, working together to solve these invisible crimes. The series is set to begin filming in September.
A vocal supporter of HKTV, Frankie Lam once again expressed confidence in his current employer. When asked to comment on the licensing issue, Frankie said that he could not see a reason why the government would not go ahead with the process, and remarked that a civilized government would surely keep its promise.
Earlier, veteran actor Chow Yun Fat (周潤發) publicly stated his support for HKTV, saying that having a new station will give viewers more choices. At Skynet‘s press conference, Ricky Wong thanked Chow Yun Fat for his encouragement, praising him for being fair and sensible. “Fat Gor truly understands moral principles! He is unlike any other. He is fair and believes in justice…. Our cast and crew, and even our viewers, are also wishing for more choices.”
Ricky Wong also addressed several recent rumors regarding his company. Some reports say that HKTV was forced to cut out many lengthy footage from comedy series My Mother is Black Rose <我阿媽係黑玫瑰>, causing the company to lose approximately $2 million HKD. When asked to comment, Ricky Wong said, “It was more than $2 million. We have high expectations for our scripts, and want the plot to be interesting and concise. The story was going slowly so we decided to speed it up. We wouldn’t want to turn one cup of orange juice into three.”
When asked about earlier reports that several HKTV artists have left the company, Ricky Wong replied, “Yes. A business organization would normally have people leave and new colleagues coming in. When people leave, it means that either they are not happy with the organization, or the organization is not satisfied with their performance. This is a very natural part of the business world…to my knowledge there were only one or two who left, including Ding Chu Wai (丁主惠), who was previously injured.” Asked if any production crew chose to leave, Ricky Wong said that none has left so far and shared that they have a three-year contract that will be in effect until the end of next year.
Ricky further revealed that HKTV will film 10 to 15 additional dramas over the next 6 months, and planned to increase its staff of artists from 250 to 300. When asked if he will continue to pressure the government to respond to his licensing petition, he said, “It may be way more effective if my media friends do so instead!”
Source: Ming Pao
This article is written by Katrine for JayneStars.com.
Why the license take so long? What they waiting? I want to see the cop series!!
another TVB people leaving for HKTV. Yoyo i will miss u on TVB.
The series sounds interesting, cyber bullying should be explored more as some people are unaware of how serious it is and adding a crime genre to it sounds even more interesting. I always liked Frankie, he seems suitable for crime genre and it’s nice to see Yoyo and Frankie again since their FH collaboration.
Yoyo and Frankie are well-matched partners.
Yup…I’ve also been waiting for the Frankie and Yoyo pairing again since I liked seeing them together in FH. This collaboration was actually rumored earlier, but was never confirmed….glad to see now that it’s finally going to happen…
I was actually thinking that this could be a continuation of the FH franchise, lol.
The plot sounds intriguing enough but I’m afraid none of the shows will ever air.
i never like yoyo acting. she’s also 1 dimension actress, same expression, same roles all the time. but i do like frankie lam acting.
it reminds me of korean drama called “Ghost” which is about cyber crime
Omg I love Frankie lam. I’m currently watching a Chinese drama with him in it. His acting is just so good.
Which series did u watch
Yea, which one did you see? The only mainland Chinese series that I have seen with him in it is Mei Ren Xin Ji and he played a very minor role in it.
oh its Di Jin. he plays the second male lead and its pretty good.
Their partnering reminds me of the Forensic Heroes franchise…
Even though I like Frankie and all after watching forensic heroes.. But I wouldn’t say his acting is super good, to me it’s pretty average, at least compared to ruco, kenneth, and some of the siu sangs now, it is.
Frankie Lam has never been a actor with good acting. He acts and talks the same in almost every drama series. He was very good looking when he was young, but I think he has lost some hair now.
“Frankie Lam has never been a actor with good acting”
thats because he always plays the same sort of character,he never plays as a villain or comedian.
I think Frankie lam just as good as most tv actors but just nothing special
He was a villain in Witness To A Prosecution but not really a strong one. I do admit he’s not a great actor but not bad, he has on screen charisma. I always end up enjoying most of his performances.
@george: Hmmm…you must not have watched Frankie’s earlier series. He used to play the villain alot before he became a lead actor. My most memorable villain performance of his was in The Challenge of Life from 1990 (awesome classic series by the way…highly recommend watching it, especially since practically none of the main cast is active in HK television industry anymore)– and he was up against veteran ‘villain’ actor Fong Gong too and still held his own, which definitely wasn’t an easy feat.
I dont understand how they keep on filming series without the license. TVB probably buying the Council’s votes to block this deal! 😀
Ricky Wong had put all the money he made from the sale of CITI telecom into an investment, where he’s generated more than enough return on investment, to fund and operate HKTV.
In the event that HKTV fails to get the permit, they can always “sell” all these drama series back to TVB for airing. LOL!!
The plot sounds interesting enough, but when will it air?
Btw so much for Fat Gor filming for TVB again, he can’t now bc he has just been added to the blacklist, LOL
@exoidus: LOL…hey, what are you talking about? Fat Gor already “returned” to TVB according to all the Media outlets (majority of the headlines state “Fat Gor returns to film for TVB!”)…I guess they consider the fact that Fat Gor will be filming that Wong Jing movie (in which TVB is only 1 investor among many others) as well as him setting foot in TVB City (since the press con for the movie was held in TVB City) as his ‘official’ return to TVB. Can’t blame them though, since that’s pretty much as ‘close’ to Fat Gor filming for them as TVB is ever going to get….
Im so sorry for being ignorant 🙁 plz forgive me la 😛
Common TVB you must show consistency by blacklisting anyone who dares to show HKTV support! Therefore you must blacklist Fat Gor otherwise you will be the new def. of hypocrisy…
I hope that when HKTV gets their license, they’ll consider ancient and period dramas too
They will, they are waiting for their 300,000 square feet studio to complete in 2015 before they can film ancient dramas.
Yay
1000000 hkd in the pocket
3000000 hkd to go.
Goodluck with the savings mr and Mrs. Cheng
Looking forward to see little ekin or little yoyo
COME ON AND GIVE THEM THEIR LICENSE ALREADY
This whole licensing thing needs to happen like now! On a side note, I do wonder how HKTV have so much money to spare on production and actors/actresses.