James Wan and The Nun writer Gary Dauberman are on board to bring the hit South Korean zombie action thriller Train to Busan to the United States. Wan is set to produce the Train to Busan remake, while Dauberman is set to pen the American version of the flick which has garnered a cult following since its release in 2016.
Deadline reports that several studios are engaged in a bloody bidding war over the rights to the project, with New Line, Universal, Paramount, Lionsgate, and Screen Gems going to bat over the Train to Busan remake. With Wan and Dauberman on board, the project is a hot package that will sell for a “seven-figure sum,” according to Deadline.
Director San-ho Yeon’s phenomenal 2016 film manages to produce one of the best zombie movies in the past decade out of a barebones premise. It follows a group of passengers on a train en route to Busan from the capital of Seoul when a zombie virus suddenly breaks out in South Korea. It’s a taut, claustrophobic zombie flick that plays out exactly like it sounds like it would, but soars thanks to the story’s touching emotional center.
Train to Busan was a huge box office hit in both South Korea and across the globe, raking in $85 million worldwide. While the US box office only counted for $2 million of that total, Train to Busan has accumulated a domestic following thanks to Netflix. So there’s an audience for it in America, where not many have seen the original, though they would be missing out if they haven’t.
The prospect of this is really intriguing and could be a hit or miss.
Source: Deadline
