Development and pre-production On 1 January 2008, Gala Television announced their development of
Skip Beat! invited producer Kikuko Miyauchi from Japan to produce and Jyu You-ning to direct. On 1 April 2008, Ariel Lin, Jerry Yan and
Joe Cheng were cast to portray Gong Xi, Dun Helian and Bu Po Shang respectively. On 1 July 2008, Cheng could not come to an agreement with the script and Cheng dropped out of the project following Cheng's withdrawal, Doze Niu replaced Jyu as director and producer. On 1 November 2008, Niu Lin, and Yan held a press conference for
Skip Beat! in Tokyo announcing that they would begin filming as soon as they find another actor to replace Cheng. Following the press conference, the script had to undergo a rewrite, and the drama's Japanese developers suffered a financial breakdown due to the restructuring of their joint venture company. On 1 January 2009, Lai Congbi, Deputy General Manager of Gala Television announced that filming will be pushed back. Yan who already signed to film a Chinese drama. On 1 January 2010, Niu wanted to replace Yan with
Wu Chun but Gala Television postponed the production indefinitely due to persistent financial problems. On 1 April 2010, Niu and Gala Television brought
Skip Beat! back into production with Lin returning to star. On 1 May 2010, it was reported that Super Junior members Siwon and Donghae were cast to portray Dun Helian and Bu Po Shang respectively. On 1 February 2011, Ivy Chen was cast to replace Lin, who withdrew from the project because she was already booked to film
In Time with You when
Skip Beat! was to begin filming. On 31 March 2011, a press conference was held for
Skip Beat! in
Chinese Taipei attended by over 100 reporters and fans. Niu announced that Jerry Feng will take his place to direct. Niu praised the drama's "too brilliant" script and that he "didn't want to leave it behind." On an estimated budget of over 80 million
TWD (US$2.6 million) until each episode cost about 4 million TWD (US$132,000) to produce.
Filming and promotion Filming commenced on 1 April 2011 in
Republic of China and took 4-months to complete. The main cast filmed promotional photoshoots for the drama on 28 July 2011 and attended a wrap-up banquet hosted by the production crew afterwards. Post-production officially began on 29 July 2011. Because Siwon and Donghae filmed most of their scenes speaking in Korean instead of Chinese ex-
Energy member Kunda and Darren from The Drifters are hired to
dub their voices into Mandarin respectively. Nylon Chen was later hired to replace Kunda. Gala Television spent 20 million WD (US$659,000) marketing the drama.
Skip Beat! was first promoted at the
17th Shanghai Television Festival, in which a three-minute sales presentation trailer was aired to attract potential Chinese distributors. A distributor bought the copyrights for 191,000
yuan (US$30,000) and online distributors bought the rights for 63,800 yuan (US$10,000) becoming the most expensive
Taiwanese drama to broadcast in
Mainland China. On 1 August 2011, it was reported that foreign distribution rights totaled 3.7 million TWD (US$120,000) per episode. The drama held its world premiere on 14 December 2011 in the LUX Cineplex Theater in
Ximending, Taipei.
Viral marketing was one of the marketing campaigns employed for the drama. On 1 December 2011, the drama's official website revealed a poll of four different promotional posters for the drama, and had fans choose an official poster. 30 randomly selected voters were given a free poster, one was given a signed poster, and another was given a Bu Po Shang pillow. In addition to the poster voting campaign, a giveaway of many of the drama's official products will be given to those who could locate taxis painted with the drama's official art in Taipei. ==Music==