"The production company's MBC provisional seizure quote "Unreasonable..."No problem with the broadcast schedule"
Sep 12, 2024
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The production company of tvN's new drama 'Jungnyeon' was planned and developed on the 12th under the leadership of the production companies (I never received a single won from MBC), and MBC delayed negotiations on production costs despite repeated requests from the production companies until filming was imminent, creating a situation in which the production company had no choice but to comply with the unreasonable conditions of MBC" he insisted.
In the end, the production companies never reached an agreement with MBC on the production cost, and MBC told them to go to another channel if they could go to another channel only 20 days before the filming began, so the production companies were forced to move to another platform with more than a month of filming delays. Nevertheless, the production companies were unable to offend the broadcasting giant, so they expressed their intention to pay if there was any cost spent by MBC, but MBC refused to disclose the details of the cost for a long time and refused the request for an interview, saying that it is a matter of malicious intent to damage the work by filing a legal lawsuit ahead of the airing of Jungnyeon.
'Jeongnyeon' side states that MBC's recent seizure is not a definitive judgment of the court, but a simple preservation disposition, and it is a provisional decision based on MBC's unilateral claim without the opportunity for producers to explain their position. In addition, the decision to seize the air is irrelevant to the broadcast, so there is no obstacle to the broadcast schedule."
According to the legal community, the Seoul District Court on the 10th cited MBC's application for seizure against Studio N, Management mmm, and NPO Entertainment, which are the producers of tvN's drama 'Jeongnyeon'. The court raised its hand to MBC. MBC said to Sports Chosun on the 12th that it applied for provisional seizure of the production company's property on the basis of "the violation of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act due to the theft of business results and the claim for damages due to the unfair destruction of contract negotiations" and that the court cited all of the applications for provisional seizure on September 10, 2024, judging that the Company's claims were all for reasons."
The promotion of "Jeongnyeon" began ahead of the first broadcast on October 13. There is no problem with broadcasting because the broadcasting ban was not disposed of, but concerns about normal broadcasting continued as the dispute was engulfed just before the broadcast.
Previously, 'Jungnyeoni' was known to be broadcast on MBC, but earlier this year, tvN's programming was confirmed. Producer Jeong Ji-in, who was a member of MBC, was planning and developing 'Jungnyeon' with MBC, and there were constant rumors that MBC would continue the lawsuit. A month before the broadcast, the conflict has once again surfaced.
'Jungnyeoni' is a masterpiece with a production cost of 2 billion won per episode, and it is known that there was a disagreement with MBC. As a result, production companies joined hands with CJ ENM-affiliated Studio Dragon, and the organization was changed. It is also known that the problem arose when producer Jeong Ji-in left MBC at the same time as the organization of 'Jeongnyeon'. It is also rumored that MBC had difficulty building the lineup due to the failure to organize 'Jeongnyeon'.
On the other hand, 'Jungnyeoni' is based on the popular webtoon of the same name and tells the stories of those who challenge Gukgeuk after the Korean War in the 1950s. Kim Tae-ri, Shin Ye-eun, Ra Mi-ran, and Jung Eun-chae will appear.
The following is the full text of the position of 'Jeongnyeon'.
Hello, this is Studio N, Management mmm, and NPO Entertainment, the producer of the drama
Through this press release, the production companies will be able to
① "Jungnyeon" was planned and developed under the leadership of the production companies (I've never received a single won from MBC)
② MBC delayed negotiations on production costs despite repeated requests from production companies until filming was imminent, creating a situation in which production companies were forced to comply with unreasonable MBC conditions
③ In the end, the production companies never reached an agreement with MBC on the production cost, and MBC told them to go to another channel if they could go to another channel only 20 days before filming began, so the production companies took more than a month of filming and moved to another platform
④ Nevertheless, the production companies expressed their intention to pay MBC if there was any internal cost because they could not upset the broadcasting giant, but MBC refused to disclose the details of the cost for a long time and refused to request an interview, and at the time of airing "Jungnyeoni", I would like to inform you that it is a matter of maliciously damaging the work.
I would like to inform you that MBC's recent seizure is not a definitive judgment of the court, but a simple preservation disposition, and it is a provisional decision based on MBC's unilateral claim without the opportunity to explain the position of the production companies. And the seizure decision is irrelevant to the broadcast, so there is no obstacle to the broadcast schedule.
MBC has never signed any contracts with the production companies, including oral agreements related to "Jeongnyeon," and the production company has never been notified of the explicit confirmation of the organization.
The production companies have been planning the video production of the webtoon "Jungnyeoni" for a long time since 2020, and after discussing the suitable director, they invited director Jung Ji-in in 2022 and officially proposed the programming and drama production costs to MBC in November 2022. At the time of the proposal, the production company repeatedly asked for an answer as to whether it could receive the production cost suggested by the production company so that it would not be deprived of the opportunity to find out other platforms, accurately informing them in advance that the production cost is inevitably high because the production cost is high and that the filming date is set. However, MBC did not give any response to the production companies' proposals for as many as six months, but it was not until the end of May 2023, four months before filming began, that the production cost was unacceptable to the production companies.
"Jungnyeon" was set to begin filming in September 2023 along with the confirmation of the director and cast, so it was urgent to raise and organize production costs. Even while MBC delayed its decision to proceed with the shooting without a hitch, the production companies continued to negotiate, rejecting all requests from other platforms to protect their trust with MBC, the other party to the contract negotiations. Nevertheless, just a month before filming, MBC called for the replacement of key staff who were already working with production companies, and told them to do so in August 2023 when filming was imminent, even with the final suggestion that production companies would have no choice but to look for other platforms. Under these circumstances, the production company had no choice but to understand that MBC had virtually no intention of moving forward with the negotiations.
Nevertheless, the production companies waited for MBC's answer for a month more, but there was no answer, so they were forced to start negotiations with other platforms to continue the production of "Jungnyeon," and agreed to organize a drama on tvN, which immediately accepted the conditions of the production companies as reasonable.
The large number of MBC personnel leaks reported in the article are groundless, and no one except the director actually left MBC. The director's decision to leave the company was also the director's voluntary decision for the completeness of the work. And as a result of the actual filming, "Jungnyeon" cost much more than MBC proposed.
Lastly, I hope that the work "Jungnyeoni", which contains the passion and hard work of many staff and actors, will be evaluated only by the work itself.
2020: Signing a planning and copyright agreement
Studio N and Management mm signed a drama copyright contract with the original webtoon writer to produce the drama "Jungnyeoni" and started planning and developing the drama.
2021-2022: Recruitment of lead actors and adaptors
Studio N, Management mmm, and NPO Entertainment, as co-producers, conducted the script planning and development of "Jungnyeoni", and recruited actor Kim Tae-ri as the lead and writer Choi Hyo-bi as the adaptor.
August 2022: Director Jeong Ji-in Proposal and Acceptance
The production company offered director Jeong Ji-in to direct the drama "Jungnyeoni", which was accepted by director Jeong Ji-in.
November 2022: MBC Programming Proposal
The production company made a proposal for a drama production and broadcast programming contract while informing MBC of the expected production cost of the drama "Jungnyeoni". The production company asked for quick feedback on the proposal, announcing that the first filming of the drama "Jungnyeoni" is scheduled for September 2023.
May 2023: MBC's initial production cost feedback
MBC did not respond to the production company's proposal, but after repeated requests from the production company, it made a proposal on conditions that the production company could not understand. After that, the production company and MBC continued to discuss the production conditions, but they could not reach an agreement.
August 10, 2023: Remove director credits from official casting articles
The production companies shared with MBC to publish official casting articles for the actors, but asked for the name of director Jung Ji-in to be removed because it was before the program was confirmed, so the credits of the director and writer were removed and distributed.
August 2023: Filming schedule imminent and other platforms proposed
With the scheduled filming date imminent, the production company informed MBC of the final proposal, expressing its intention that if MBC cannot accept it, it will have no choice but to propose it to other platforms. In response, MBC asked to replace key staff who had already been participating in the production for months in the name of reducing production costs, and responded that other platforms would not be able to accept this condition.
September 2023: Production company's exclusive script reading will be held
The production company, which could not postpone the filming further, conducted the script reading of "Jungnyeoni" alone outside MBC without confirming the platform. MBC didn't say anything about the script reading, even though it was conducted without the channel credit mark on the script cover.
September 2023: Studio Dragon Accepts Production Company's Offer
The production company was forced to propose to Studio Dragon, and Studio Dragon accepted the production cost proposed by the production company as reasonable. After that, MBC learned about this and asked the production company to re-negotiate the terms of the contract, but the production company could not accept MBC's re-consultation because it was against the above-mentioned intention.
October 2023: Filming starts and subsequent issues with MBC occur
As the negotiations broke down as above, the filming was delayed by a month, which caused additional production cost issues. Nevertheless, the production company told MBC that it was willing to pay if there was any cost spent internally, but MBC rejected such a production company's proposal and stopped communicating, signaling legal action.
lunamoon@sportschosun.com
