The Hollywood remake of “Train to Busan,” the 2016 megahit Korean zombie movie starring Gong Yoo, Ma Dong-seok and Jung Yu-mi, will proceed more than two years after it was announced.
Indonesian director Timo Tjahjanto is being tapped to helm the remake of the Korean film, according to entertainment media outlet Deadline.
“The Train comes for Us,” Tjahjanto posted on Instagram to confirm the news. His directing credits include the movies “May the Devil Take You Too,” “May the Devil Take You” and “The Night Comes for Us.”
In 2018, it was announced that New Line Cinema, a unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, won the bidding for the remake copyright of “Train to Busan” over Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate and Screen Gems.
James Wan, Michael Clear, Nicolas Atlan and Terry Kalagian will produce the remake while Gary Dauberman will adapt the screenplay, the report stated.
However, the remake is getting negative feedback.
“The original is perfect already and so popular that most audiences, even in the US, saw it. Nobody’s interested in a remake,” one commented on the Deadline news.
Another wrote, “Bad idea. Gone from the original masterpiece will be the tension and suspense that took it levels above most zombie films. Instead those qualities will be replaced with more blood and more shots of zombies eating people. Boring, and the WRONG way to go.”
“The original is some kind of intense masterpiece,” one said.
“Train to Busan,” directed by Yeon Sang-ho, was released in South Korea in July 2016 and became the No. 1 top-grossing film for the year, selling 11.56 million tickets and earning $84.2 million, according to the Korean Film Council (KOFIC).
The follow-up film, “Peninsula,” released last July, had 3.81 million admissions and gross of $29.9 million in South Korea to place third among the top grossers in 2020.
Its performance was still respectable amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which had a huge negative impact on the Korean film industry as people stayed at home and theaters did not operate at full capacity.