Ha Ji-won Denies IRIS 2 Reports

Mar 20, 2010

Hm, conflicting reports on this one. Although a few news outlets have
reported that Ha Ji-won would take the lead in the IRIS
sequel drama, Athena, the actress’s side has come out
to say that this isn’t the case.

On the 19th, it was reported that the Taewon Entertainment CEO had
said that they were in negotiations with Ha. In response, Ha’s
management stated, “That is not at all true. She has a lot of other
projects that she is deciding between. She has not discussed appearing
in IRIS 2.”

Ha already has her next film project lined up, which reunites her
with director Yoon Je-kyun from blockbuster disaster
film Haeundae. She’ll begin filming in April. Athena,
meanwhile, plans to begin filming in June in Italy, then Switzerland,
followed by shoots in Singapore, New Zealand, and more overseas
locations.

I’m not sure whether this is a serious denial, or just Ha’s side
being careful not to jump to conclusions — often news reports will
announce something before it’s finalized, and most of the time the issue
goes on to be finalized anyway. But as we know, plans can often fall
through and until both sides are willing to announce the news, ain’t
nothing set in stone. However, merely mention of Ha Ji-won being
considered for Athena gets me excited, because she would be
PERFECT. She does sexy and intense better than most actresses of her
generation, and I would put her and Kim Sun-ah as my two top picks for
the role, with Ha edging out Kim. In fact, if she joins Jung
Woo-sung and Cha Seung-won in this sequel,
I’ll be much more excited about this drama than I ever was about its
predecessor.