Fox Asia working on series on legendary singer Teresa Teng
HONG KONG: Fox Asia is eyeing a bonanza by working on a series on the top female singer of the 1970s, Teresa Teng.
Teresa is to be the subject of “Memory Eclipse”, an anthology series which is an expansion of the original productions slate at Fox Networks Group in Asia.
The five-part series is produced by former Media Asia executive and “Infernal Affairs” producer John Chong. It is set up at Winday Culture, a film production company from Teng’s native Taiwan.
Each episode will feature a different cast of characters, with a storyline inspired by a Teng song. Production will take place in Taiwan and Thailand, where she died suddenly while travelling, aged 42. The release of the series is set for 2019.
The series is directed by Winday founder Charles Sun (writer and director of ‘Bad Boy Symphony’, producer of ‘Gatao’ and ‘The Spin Kid’). Key cast members include Kaiser Chuang (‘Maverick’), Esther Liu (‘Thirty Something’, ‘Falling’,) J.C. Lin (‘The Day to Choose’, ‘The Scoundrels’,) Nikki Hsieh (‘Honey PuPu,” ‘The Scoundrels’,) Alan Kuo (‘The Rooftop’,) and Teresa Daley (‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’).
Teresa is one of the best-known cultural exports from Taiwan. Performing mainly in Mandarin, but also in other Asian languages and English, she had a repertoire that spanned pop, ballads and folk music.
More than 20 years after her death she still has an active fan following. VFX company Digital Domain Holdings immortalised her as a holographic performer. In 2013 Digital Domain’s socalled virtual human performed three songs as part of a show by more contemporary Taiwanese mega-star Jay Chou (‘The Green Hornet’).
“With Mandarin-language content experiencing an unprecedented boom, now is the time to be ambitious and bold in our Chinese entertainment strategy,” said Cora Yim, senior vice president and head of Chinese entertainment at Fox Networks Group Asia. Previous originals from Fox Networks Asia have included ‘The Trading Floor’ and ‘Stained’.
“The series is a bold reimagining of the themes behind Teresa Teng’s music, so that fans can experience the heart, soul and spirit of her beloved songs in a completely new way,” said Chong.