It’s confirmed: Bea Alonzo and Alden Richards will headline the Kapuso adaptation of the Korean drama series Start-Up!
This was announced tonight, March 4, 2022, in 24 Oras.
GMA-7 was able to acquire the rights to do the Filipino adaptation of Start-Up, which was shown in 2020.
The Korean drama series headlined by Bae Suzy, Nam Joo-hyuk, Kang Han-na, and Kim Seon-ho became popular in the Philippines when it was aired via Netflix.
It tells the story of a woman named Seo Dal-mi (Bae Suzy) who dreams of becoming Korea’s Steve Jobs.
She is also torn between Nam Do-San (Nam Joo-hyuk) and Han Ji-pyeong (Kim Seon-ho).
CJ Entertainment, the producer of Start-Up, said about the partnership: "GMA has always been a great partner, and it is great to see them remaking one of my favorite series in Philippines.
"Starting with Start-Up, which has a well-established storyline and unique characters, we are willing to actively carry out more adaptations of dramas with GMA in the future for the fans in Philippines."
GMA Vice President for Entertainment Lilybeth Rasonable said there are "certain surprises" that the network has prepared for its version of Start-Up.
She said, "Pero may certain surprises na inihanda kami para sa audience. Para doon sa mga dating nakapanood na, I think matutuwa sila. At para doon sa first time na makikita itong proyektong ito or mapapanood, matutuwa rin sila sa mga little surprises na inihanda ng GMA."
GMA-7 has yet to announce the roles of Bea and Alden, but it can already be inferred that Bea will portray the female lead.
The Kapuso network has yet to reveal who among the male lead characters Alden will portray in the adaptation.
Start-Up marks the first teleserye of Bea in the Kapuso network since she transferred from ABS-CBN in July 2021.
As early as January 2022, there were already rumors going around on social media that GMA-7 will do an adaptation of Start-Up with Bea and Alden in the leads.
This was after Bea confirmed that she will have Alden as her leading man in her first GMA-7 teleserye early this year.
The Kapuso network has yet to announce the other artists and key people involved in the Philippine adaptation of Start-Up, as well as its airing date.