Next Media’s first ever drama “拜金女王” (roughly translates to "Material Queen") was without any male lead after Jerry Yan dropped out. Luckily they are back on track with Van Ness Wu signing onto the drama. It will reunite him with Autumn’s Concerto producer Chen Yu Shan and director Chen Hui Ling after their hugely successful collaboration last year. Most stars tend to be wary of replacing another in existing projects, but Van Ness Wu doesn’t seem to have this problem -- He almost replaced Vic Chou in the movie “The Killer Never Kills” before withdrawing due to scheduling conflicts.
Van Ness Wu was recording his album in Japan when producer Chen contacted him. He returned to Taiwan to finalize the agreement right away, and met with the drama’s stylist Patricia Field (from “Sex and the City”). In addition to growing out his hair, Van Ness Wu will also be taking French and violin lessons for his role. His costar Lynn Xiong will play an orphan-turned-materialistic model in the title character. Her height is reportedly 178 cm so the 180 cm tall Van Ness might experience a bad case of "Donnie Yen" if she wears in stilettos. Material Queen expects to begin filming at the end of September.