Local director Jack Neo is a busy man next year: On top of his previously announced movie Ah Boys To Frogmen and his short film contribution to the omnibus 7 Letters, he will be releasing yet another feature titled Long Long Time Ago.
At a press conference held at Marina Bay Sands on Wednesday afternoon, he told reporters that the first part of the planned two-parter will be out at the end of next year and is being made to celebrate Singapore's 50th birthday. The second part of the $6 million project will be released over Chinese New Year in 2016.
Long Long Time Ago will take viewers from Singapore's birth in 1965 all the way to the present day, and is said to be a "heartwarming story detailing kampung life to the time when Singaporeans moved into HDB flats", he says. It will centre on a mistress named Ah Juan, who has to raise her five children on her own when her lover's wife kicks her out of the household.
Neo adds: "Yes I will be very busy, but I'm not too worried about the filming process for all the projects. My biggest headache for Long Long Time Ago is the casting, because I need to find people who can speak dialects and also not look too modern, in order to properly reflect the setting period."
Open casting calls for the new project will likely begin in January, and production in May next year.
