HBO Asia Preps First Chinese-Language Original Series

SINGAPORE: HBO Asia has unveiled its first Chinese original series, The Psychic, based on a Taiwanese short film.

The 6×1-hour series is being jointly developed with Taiwanese broadcaster Public Television Service (PTS) and Singaporean production company InFocus Asia (IFA). It is set and filmed fully on location in Taiwan and is based on the award-winning short film from PTS’s Innovative Stories strand, The Busy Young Psychic. A coming-of-age tale shot in Chinese with dialect, The Psychic will debut in early 2017 on PTS and across 23 AsiaPac territories on HBO, with subtitles where relevant.

Jonathan Spink, CEO of HBO Asia, said, “Asia’s rich diversity offers inspiration for countless stories waiting to be told, and local talents to be discovered. Through collaborating with PTS and remarkable talents in Taiwan to increase our production of local language content, HBO Asia is perfectly placed to bring our creative spin to The Psychic for regional audiences to enjoy.”

Jessie Shih, the director of the international department at PTS, said: “I am very happy to announce PTS’s first collaboration with HBO Asia on their first Chinese original series, also their first Taiwan series, working with a young and upcoming local team, bridging the gap between television and film with the talented mix of crew and actors. Cultivating local young talents and helping them to connect with the international industry is PTS’s top priority, like our Innovative Stories and Life stories which have won many regional and international awards. I believe this new HBO-PTS collaboration, in partnership with IFA’s Singapore and Taipei creative team who have always done great work with PTS, will lead the local Taiwanese industry to greater heights!”