This past week, a bunch of behind the scenes staff in TVB’s drama production department submitted their letters of resignation. The department, which is headed by Catherine Tsang and Tommy Leung, will be losing screenwriters, copy editors, as well as assistant directors, though it appears that Tommy’s side is more severely affected. One of the staff who has already tendered her resignation is the screenwriter responsible for this year’s hit series "Ghetto Justice", Lau Choi Wan. In addition to "Ghetto Justice", other series that she was responsible for writing in the past include "Square Pegs", "Life Made Simple", "Survivor’s Law", "La Femme Desperado", and last year’s anniversary series "Gun Metal Grey". Since she is also responsible for writing the script to the upcoming sequel "Ghetto Justice 2", it is anticipated that her departure will have severe impact to the quality of the script, which has not been completed yet. In addition to Lau Choi Wan, it is reported that the copy editor for one of next year’s grand productions – the 40 episode "Prominent Family" starring Damian Lau, Idy Chan, Ron Ng, Fala Chen, and Tavia Yeung – has also submitted a resignation letter (the series was originally scheduled to begin filming at the end of this year).
Based on the above, City Telecom’s‘strategy’ appears to focus on those involved with next year’s grand productions, thereby attempting to do the greatest damage possible. With the unrest behind-the-scenes, various rumors have been circulating amongst the staff. The ‘rumor’ that has gained the most traction so far is that the ‘main force’ behind much of the poaching of behind-the-scenes staff is someone very familiar with the company – TVB’s former ‘golden’ scriptwriter Cheung Wah Biu! Originally, Cheung Wah Biu was planning to return to TVB in October, however it was reported that the owner of Taiwan’s Next TV Station, Jimmy Lai, successfully retained Cheung Wah Biu by allowing him to return to HK and write his scripts for the station from there. It has been 2 weeks since that report and it now appears the tides have been turned – according to an inside source within TVB, Cheung Wah Biu was involved with ‘choosing’ the individuals that were recruited. It is said that the 20 scriptwriters and copy editors whom Cheung Wah Biu had taken with him when he left TVB last year, plus those who were recruited just this past week (a total of close to 50 people), will be joining Ricky Wong’s City Telecom.
Catherine Tsang’s side is supposedly affected as well, as it is rumored that a few of the screenwriters and assistant directors for ‘golden’ producer Lee Tim Sing were also poached with offers of up to 10% increase in salary. However, it is said that Catherine Tsang caught wind of the ‘poaching’ and urgently met with all of the behind the scenes staff on Monday, offering to increase their salaries by 3 to 5 times the amount, thereby successful retaining more than half of those who had intentions of leaving. Therefore, the ‘damage’ on Catherine’s side is not as severe as Tommy Leung’s.
Ricky Wong flew to Taiwan to recruit Cheung Wah Biu
Back when Cheung Wah Biu left TVB, he had once revealed that there was discord between him and producer Lau Kar Ho during their collaboration on "Moonlight Resonance" in 2008. At the time, he had expressed that the ‘soul’ of any script should be the scriptwriters who come up with the creative ideas rather than the producers who oftentimes have no experience in writing scripts at all. Therefore, he had always been of the opinion that in the actual production of a series, a production supervisor, copy editor, and director are already sufficient, therefore the position of producer was not very important. It is reported that in addition to difficulties adapting to life in Taiwan, another reason why Cheung Wah Biu wished to return to HK was because he encountered some of the same problems as he did at TVB – that is, the producers ‘getting in the way’ of creativity. It is said that City Telecom’s Ricky Wong has great admiration for Cheung Wah Biu’s talents and is very supportive of his production supervisor / copy editor / director ‘concept’ – add to that the offer of a huge salary increase, a tremendous amount of ‘sincerity’ as well as the chance to ‘go against’ TVB – all combined to successfully ‘recruit’ Cheung Wah Biu.
When asked about the rumor of Cheung Wah Biu being Ricky Wong’s ‘force’ behind the poaching efforts, TVB’s golden producer (and Cheung Wah Biu’s good friend) Lee Tim Sing expressed: “I’ve heard of that rumor as well. It’s possibly true and possibly not true – cannot be verified.” (It’s rumored that Cheung Wah Biu even tried poaching screenwriters who work under you?) “That might just be a rumor, also cannot be verified. Actually, Wah Biu called me just now and very sincerely provided me with an explanation – with our 30+ years of friendship, I believe him at this point in time. The reality is that a few of the staff in my team have been poached and it’s definitely by City Telecom, but who it was that sought them out, I don’t know.”
As for the ‘main player’ in question, Cheung Wah Biu, he denied that he was the behind the scenes force poaching TVB’s artists: “I actually heard about that rumor 2 days ago and it made me quite unhappy. I can tell you that Ricky Wong truly did fly to Taiwan to seek me out and we did have a few very honest discussions, however as of right now, I do not ‘belong’ to any company – not TVB and not City Telecom. Instead, I am currently a freelance helping Jimmy Lai (of Next Media) on the production of a 60 episode TV series. I’m getting up there in age and only have a few ‘creative’ years left in my career, so all I hope for at this point is to find a platform where I can do my creative work. It’s not that I’m afraid of not being able to return to TVB, it just saddens me that it appears my affinity with my ‘mother’ company [TVB] is already at its end. With that particular rumor circulating so aggressively at this time, is there even a chance of returning?”
Asked about the ‘progress’ of his discussions with Ricky Wong and whether the rumor of a huge increase in salary was true, Cheung Wah Biu replied: “We haven’t even gotten to the point of discussing salary yet! With discussions only in its ‘infant’ stages, there is already so much trouble…aiye! Back when I left TVB, I actually only brought 2 screenwriters with me – those rumors of me taking 20 screenwriters with me are ridiculous! I’m not the kind of person who likes to walk around with an ‘entourage’ of people around me – do you think I’m trying to be a ‘Big Brother’?”
He continues: “I don’t recall whether I actually provided Ricky Wong with any specific names of ‘good’ screenwriters when he asked me, but even if I did, is that considered poaching? For example, if someone were to ask me whether you [the reporter interviewing him] are a good reporter and I answer ‘yes’, does that constitute advising the specific name of a person to be poached? In my heart, I still wish that my ‘mother’ company [TVB] is able to make changes for the better – I have no intention of trying to purposefully ‘harm’ them!”
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(Sidebar Article):
‘Green Leaf’ Artists Become “Hot Targets” for Poaching
In addition to the behind-the-scenes talents, first line siu sangs and fa dans have also been targets of poaching – even many of the ‘green leaf’ veteran artists have become ‘hot targets’ for poaching as of late!
Felix Lok (駱應鈞):
With his contract already expired several months ago, veteran actor Felix Lok admitted that Ricky Wong did invite him to join his company, however at this time, he is not considering it. “I didn’t leave TVB because of dissatisfaction with the company – rather, I was starting to feel bored after being with the company for so long. Therefore, I wanted a change in environment – plus the hours shooting movies are not as long and the schedule more flexible. As for whether I will join Ricky Wong’s group or not – well, my contract with TVB just ended not too long ago and I don’t want to be tied down to another TV station again so quickly. Being a freelance artist right now gives me more freedom when accepting job offers.”
Kwok Fung (郭鋒):
With his TVB contract ending in November this year, Kwok Fung admitted that several TV stations have already sought him out. Asked whether Ricky Wong has tried recruiting him, Kwok Fung replied: “Not only him – others have contacted me as well. I’m not going to worry too much over it, but will consider each offer carefully. It’s the same as going to a store to buy something – you have to consider carefully and look at all the options. TVB doesn’t treat me too badly, but these types of things, it is necessary to think carefully about it.”
Lee Kwok Lun (李國麟):
Lee Kwok Lun’s contract was originally set to expire on October 20th of this year. Having joined TVB’s Acting Class back in 1974, Lee Kwok Lun has served TVB for 37 years. A month before his contract was scheduled to expire, he still had not been contacted by anyone in the Artists Department to discuss renewing his contract, which had upset him. “In the past, during times of trouble such as SARS and the tsunami in the stock market, the company needed us to ‘help out’ and bear the difficulties together, I can definitely understand. But these past few years, the company has made a lot of money, yet they’ve been very self-seeking and are only concerned with reporting good results back to investors, thereby ignoring a lot of problems that have been occurring. Traditionally, the Artists Department would already start discussing contract renewals 1 month prior to expiration, but this time around, it didn’t happen. However, since Zhan Jie [Catherine Tsang] personally asked me to stay and also agreed to give me a raise, I decided to renew my contract for another 2 years.”
Wilson Tsui (艾威)
Veteran actor Wilson Tsui has participated in numerous TVB series throughout the years. He revealed that Ricky Wong is his old classmate and they’ve known each other for a long time: “I’m not going to say when my contract expires. He [Ricky Wong] is my old classmate – we’ve talked and he has asked me to go over to help him out, but did not ask me to sign any contract. For now, I will remain at TVB.”
thanks for translating!