SINGAPORE — It has been turned into a graphic novel, and now the cult homegrown book Gone Case is hitting the small screen as a telemovie.

Author Dave Chua’s award-wining coming-of-age tale set during the 1990s will be shown as a two-part series on Feb 2 and 9, 10pm, on MediaCorp Channel 5. It stars Yvonne Lim, Zheng Ge Ping, Bernard Tan, Sunny Pang and familiar Okto face Lim Chu Yeang as the main character, Yong, a 12-year-old boy who goes through a range of experiences from a death in the family to an encounter with a street gang in his HDB estate.

Gone Case won the Singapore Literature Prize Commendation Award in 1996 and the second edition of the novel came out in 2002. A two-volume graphic novel series done in collaboration with artist Koh Hong Teng was published in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

The telemovie was directed by Ler Jiyuan and produced and adapted for TV by film-maker Lee Thean-Jeen. It will feature an original score by Singapore scene stalwart Joe Ng and a song by The Observatory’s Leslie Low.

“I’m definitely surprised and feel very fortunate. I never thought the book would have such legs when I wrote it, and to have the telemovie produced by Thean-Jeen, with a score by Joe Ng is an honour,” said Chua, whose latest short fiction collection The Beating And Other Stories was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize. He had also collaborated with Ng Xiao Yan for the graphic novel The Girl Under The Bed.

“I was having coffee with the director, Ler Jiyuan, and we realised that we had never seen Dave’s novel in a screen adaptation,” shared Lee, who had already previously adapted Singapore literary works for television with AlterAsians and The Singapore Short Story Project series for Okto.

He added: “Ler took a very cinematic approach to the adaptation, and we both tried to be as faithful to the essence of Dave’s novel as much as possible, in both the writing and direction. This is not your typical telemovie. (MediaCorp artistes Lim and Zheng) give very measured performances that are very different from their work in Chinese drama.”

Both Lee and Chua said that the Singapore literary scene could offer a wealth of ready material for both television and cinema, such as Yeng Pway Ngon’s Unrest, Claire Tham’s The Inlet, Troy Chin’s Resident Tourist, Felix Cheong’s Vanishing Point, among others.

As for Gone Case and its very impressive history of crossing into different platforms, is there enough room for one more adaptation?

“A rock opera with giant puppets would be nice!” quipped Chua.

Catch Gone Case on Feb 2 (Part One) and Feb 9 (Part Two), 10pm, on MediaCorp Channel 5.