Neil Humphreys' TV show may snag Hollywood Chinese actor

When Mr Neil Humphreys first started crafting the character of police inspector Stanley Low, the misanthropic protagonist of his 2015 book Marina Bay Sins, he wrote it with local actor Adrian Pang in mind.

The best-selling Singapore-based British author and The New Paper sports columnist said: “Inspector Low is a polarising character - you either hate him or love him. He has no vulnerability, no ego, no vanity. 

“An actor like Adrian deserves better characters on TV. His acting is so authentic, and I’ve seen him go to dark places when he acts on stage.”

Marina Bay Sins, the first of Mr Humphreys' gritty crime thriller series, will be adapted by international producer and distributor 108 Media into a TV show comprising eight hour-long episodes set in Singapore and London.

Its sequels, Rich Kill Poor Kill and Bloody Foreigners, will be adapted as subsequent seasons.

Mr Humphreys, 45, would love for Pang to be involved ("Always have and always will"), but his dream casting is far from over, as another star is in the “early discussion stage” for the role.

He said: “When they told me the Chinese actor’s name, I nearly fell off my chair and said ‘You’ll never get him’.

“Then later, they told me they had contacted his agent and he wants to read the script. I couldn’t believe it. He’s been in big Hollywood movies and TV series.”

Mr Justin Deimen, 108 Media’s president, added: “He fits the spirit of the role that Neil has written, and allows us to bridge this project with the rest of the world.”

Currently in its scriptwriting stage, Marina Bay Sins will likely start production in Singapore and the UK after July next year, and is slated for an early 2022 release.

Mr Humphreys, who is set to be an executive producer and scriptwriter, said: “Since I was young, I had always been infatuated with television and my entire knowledge of the world was from TV. It has always been my secret ambition to write for TV. Usually when I write my stories, I have a TV adaptation in mind, and visualise the stories scene by scene.” 

108 Media will also be adapting Sonny Liew’s graphic novel The Art Of Charlie Chan Hock Chye into an animated series as well as the late Gopal Baratham’s mystery novel Moonrise, Sunset