Inside a highend Korean restaurant in Cheongdamdong.
Tae Jo put a piece of vibrant red yukhoe (Korean beef tartare) into his mouth. As he slowly chewed, the tender meat and the savory sesame oil danced on the tip of his tongue.
“Is this really going into production?”
Director Ji asked with a halfskeptical face. The delicious food served on the table was all secondary.
It was a meeting he had called as soon as he returned from France, without even unpacking his luggage.
He had dropped everything to come here upon hearing that there was good news, but the story Tae Jo had told him far exceeded his expectations.
They were going to exclusively distribute his work on a worldfamous OTT platform. And they would even receive ample funding for it.
“Yes. Of course, there are conditions.”
Tae Jo wiped his mouth with a napkin and nodded. Director Ji asked him with a grave face.
“What conditions?”
“The script you gave me is for a movie. They want to turn it into a 10episode drama series.”
“A 10episode drama…”
Director Ji murmured as he stroked his chin. He had revised the script hundreds of times to match the running time.
Given that he had enough deleted scenes to make a whole new series, having more time to enrich the content was rather welcome news for him.
Editing the script he had read countless times would be hard work, but that wasn’t the problem.
There was more to it than just increasing the content…
“So what about the production cost?”
He had sought investors for the sake of satisfactory quality, but he had failed time and time again due to not finding a middle ground between their profits and Director Ji’s ambitions.
When he had shown the script to potential investors, he wasn’t famous in the movie world yet. So there wasn’t anyone willing to invest solely based on the script.
He thought that his opportunity would come once he became famous.
And he had kept this script on hold for a whopping seven years with that thought.
“They’re putting in 23 billion won, we’re putting in 10 billion. We’re planning on 3.3 billion per episode.”
“3.3 billion per episode?”
Director Ji’s eyes widened. The amount was much larger than he had anticipated. Considering the production situation of domestic dramas, he had only expected 700 to 800 million won per episode.
“Are you joking?”
“I don’t joke while drinking expensive alcohol.”
“Expensive alcohol?”
Aren’t we eating right now?
When Director Ji glanced at the table, Woo Hyun, who was busily shoveling food on Tae Jo’s side, spoke.
“When Representative Jin met with the platform’s representative, he drank so much that he lost his film.”
Woo Hyun repeated the gesture of scissors with two fingers.
I thought he could hold his alcohol well when I saw him last time. Director Ji looked at Tae Jo in surprise.
“Did that happen?”
“Yes. I lost some of my memories. So I’m trying hard to find them.”
“How are you going to find lost memories.”
“That’s what I’m saying. For some reason, Representative Jin has been spacing out a lot lately.”
As Woo Hyun added teasingly, Tae Jo glared at him as if he was talking nonsense.
“So when does the filming start?”
“It all depends on the director, right? It will take some time to adapt again. In the meantime, you can do the casting, set the budget, build the set. And then, you can start shooting.”
“Is it possible to increase the budget if it’s not enough?”
“What, you’re going to rent an entire island and shoot there?”
“No, that’s not it. But while adapting, I might come up with a different story.”
As Director Ji gave an embarrassed smile, Tae Jo chuckled lightly.
“Well then, I’ll have another look at the liquor. Well, there are foreign works where the production cost per episode exceeds 10 billion.”
“That’s quite reassuring just to hear.”
“It’s not an empty promise. I have high expectations for your work, Director Ji. But the food is getting cold. Please, start eating.”
Upon Tae Jo’s urging to eat first, Director Ji picked up his spoon. He was grateful for Tae Jo, who had looked kindly upon his script, which had previously been rejected everywhere he showed it.
“Ah, but have you thought about the actors for that work, director?”
Upon Woo Hyun’s question, Director Ji, who was scooping up galbitang, rolled his eyes.
“There are a few people in mind. Ah, by the way, isn’t actress Yoon Se Kyung affiliated with Representative Jin’s company?”
“Yes. Is Miss Yoon Se Kyung also in your casting rankings, director?”
“Oh. What was the work? I saw a movie with Miss Se Kyung, and that image just came to mind.”
Tae Jo recalled the face of Se Kyung with the script of the “Hunting” written by Director Ji.
Though it was a tentative title, the work, as suggested by the word “Hunting,” had some brutal scenes where blood and flesh splattered.
Did the director see something different?
Yoon Se Kyung, who seemed too gentle to kill even a single bug, in a bloody and fierce atmosphere?
When it comes to Yoon Se Kyung and blood, all he could imagine was her trembling in the cold and bleeding from her nose.
Male lead is a Destined Young Husband (Female-dominant)
One-sentence summary: Wife-master, listen to my explanation!
Li Ruantang, a young lady from a prestigious family, stumbled and fell. When she woke up, she saw a noble and beautiful young man sitting by her bedside, wiping away tears.
The young master had slightly reddened eyes, and his every move exuded charm.
The sight made Li Ruantang’s eyes hot and her heart flutter. After all, she had made a bet with the young master Meng from the neighboring family. If she couldn’t marry a husband before the end of the year, she would have to admit defeat and give up the jade she had worked so hard to obtain.
Outside the window, the flowers were in full bloom.
Rather than losing the bet, the jade, and her face, Li Ruantang calculated that it would be better to seek marriage with the young master in front of her, killing three birds with one stone.
…
Meng Jun never thought that an accident during a spring outing would lead to them rolling down a cliff and into a river, yet still survive.
Now they were trapped in an unknown village, and Meng Jun had overheard that the family who had rescued them had their own intentions.
After all, it was Li Ruantang who had lost her mind and sought marriage first. He was only trying to protect himself!
Glancing at Li Ruantang, who was listing her own merits, the young husband’s voice softened, and he blushed as he lied, “W-wife-master, Wife-master, don’t you remember me?”
The young husband’s voice was clear and handsome, coaxing Li Ruantang’s heart to be soft and sweet, and she spared no effort to protect him.
It wasn’t until they returned to the capital that Li Ruantang suddenly remembered.
When they had fallen off the cliff, in order not to implicate Wei Yunruo, whom he secretly admired, the young husband had instead pulled her, who was slightly farther away, down the cliff with him…
Short summary by Yuushi L: Initially, the male lead (ML) liked another girl, while the female lead (FL) liked the ML. Both fell off a cliff. The FL temporarily lost her memory, and the ML, fearing others might take advantage of him, claimed FL was his wife while they were staying in a village. Later, when they returned home, the FL regained her memories and remembered that the ML liked someone else, so she kept her distance from him. However, during their time living together in the countryside, the ML’s view of the FL had completely changed. From this point, his pursuit of the FL begins.
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