theotherayn

🍉Project Updates:

Love in Red Dust - no idea when they'll officially announce it, either during the official booting ceremony or Mango's Investment Conference on May 15 (I think)

The Wanted Detective - new melons are now saying it'll air in August/September. According to the scriptwriter, a new long trailer should be released soon.

Tang Gong Qi An - director said something about "see you in autumn" during his wrap up post which makes people think it's going to be aired this year as well.

Shadow Detective - all this time I thought it was a Huanyu drama. it's not so if the investors did run away then there's nothing Yu Zheng can do about it.

Xing Zhi Wan - no FL yet. Yu Zheng said he wants someone young so melons about Yang Chaoyue, Wu Xuanyi or Shen Yue are likely false. the most likely candidate Huangyang Tiantian is starting college soon (the big drama schools don't let their students act in projects for the first 2 years) so it's not her either.

May Schedule:

May 1 - joins new drama crew (Love in Red Dust)
May 1-6 - makeup tests, script reading
May 13-14 - variety show recording (hi6)
May 18 - business activity
May 25 - promotional activity (Yueyang/Hunan Tourism Conference)
May 29 - business activity

Congratulations to Perfect Match for being mentioned in Mango's 2025 Q1 financial report! Hopefully this means second collaborations for our favorite CPs in the future. (Meanwhile, WXY and Winwin already have their next projects with the platform.)

there are reuters of an almost kissing scene so yes there'll probably be a romance but it's uncertain how much they'll focus on it since the script never leaked.

Story clues written on the new poster: "Night Evil descends upon the Great Qi Dynasty, the general dies, the secret of the deep house is revealed, blood is drawn from living people, oil is refined from corpses, corpses are sewn with thousands of needles, the past of the sea cliff is raised, the lonely city is filled with hatred, blood stains the purgatory on earth."

via the scriptwriter on the show's Weibo supertopic. he also said there'll be a long trailer next month.

the poster/materials released yesterday by the production team all have "The Wanted Detective" on them so it's still the current English title. Maybe the programmers at iQiyi just didn't revise it yet.

in the novel there is a love triangle with his older brother (who tries to force the FL to be his male concubine) but reportedly the script is more comedic so they might've changed it to not make him a serious threat. Plus the actor for the 2ML (Chang Long) is more known for his comedy chops. ML is not betrothed to anyone in the novel, but the brother is.

Douban rating rose to 6.1 now (originally opened at 5.8)

UPDATE:

April 18 - commercial shoot
April 30 - variety show recording (hi6)
🍉shooting a Yueyang travel diary/show for the Hunan Tourism Conference on May 25
🍉Love in Red Dust starts shooting May 7th for around 100 days (3 months) UPDATE: official booting ceremony will be May 16 or 17

Love in Red Dust is now scheduled for early May. FL is Xu Ruohan.

not totally mad about it, at the very least she can sell a romance.

new 🍉 says it's Xu Ruohan

melon owners say they're contacting 95🌸 with connections to Mango and HLD fits so I'm hoping she's an option. they were really cute in that variety show together.

Li Landi is actually the closest looks wise based on the description in the books. WCR seems too tall (idk her actual height tho haha) and I don't have an impression of GXT but she's reportedly shooting a movie soon so they've eliminated her. I can actually see He Landou as the FL too, but I don't know what she's doing right now or if Mango will think she's bankable enough. Lu Yuxiao was also rumored a few months ago so maybe a second collaboration is possible? Yeah Song Zu'er is still banned. I think her projects can air but they can't do any promotions with her.

looks like the deal with WYW fell through. melon accounts now saying Wang Churan or Guan Xiaotong (edit: Li Landi is also back in the conversation). anyway, they should announce soon unless it gets delayed.

I read the novel and it's not really anything new, except for the fact he'll be playing a deaf hero. it'll depend on the way it's adapted (as always).
Zhu Dadeng is a capable director despite the complaints about his over the top shots/lighting (but there's a running joke on douban that his headlights became Zhang Zhe's holy lights since WXY came out of it unscathed unlike BL and ZLH lol).

Honestly, he's still stuck in idol dramas so I'm not really expecting too much. I'll watch anything he's in anyway. And maybe if the CCTV drama is real then it will lead to more serious/prestige roles in the future.

YZ said there were 3 scripts: a housefight, a political conspiracy, and a fantasy/xianxia. none fit LIRD really since it's a roadtrip romcom. but guess we'll see soon.

I think the denial was that it was XYL that was the ML. all the melons still say it's hers.

there's no real confirmation for WYW yet and YZ keeps denying Love in Red Dust in spite of all the melon owners saying it's settled (but he did the same with Tang Palace so whatever YZ.) It might be that LIRD has the better configuration for his career as a Mango key project compared to the other options (I know the only other project he was rumored for that was scheduled for Q2 was Tencent's Imperial Court Ballad but it seems YZ handed that to Wu Jinyan instead.) The headwriter is good anyway so maybe this time he'll be able to play a character with complete development lol.

the description of the romance from someone who read the script was "a secret love with a little redemption at the end" so I'm guessing it'll be mostly subtle until the scene they shot today (unless they cut it)

WXY's April Schedule:

April 6 - 🍉his last day of filming for Tang Palace (Bai Lu's is April 9)
April 8-10 - dubbing 🍉The Wanted Detective
April 11 - event recording (update: confirmed to be CCTV's Lilac Poetry Reading Festival)
April 14 - business live broadcast
April 15-17 - variety show recording (update: confirmed to be hi6)
April 18 - business live broadcast
April 19-21 - dubbing 🍉The Wanted Detective
April 22 - event recording 🍉for CCTV youth gala in May
April 24 - magazine shoot
April 27 - business live broadcast (update: cancelled)
🍉if rumors of Love in Red Dust are true then he'll also start filming in late April lol no vacation for our Taotao😂