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| Shin Ha-Kyun as Byung-gu in the 2003 film "Save the Green Planet," which will become a Hollywood remake by original director Jang Joon-hwa / Korea Times file |
Original director Jang to helm US production
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Korean sci-fi black comedy "Save the Green Planet" will become a Hollywood remake with original director Jang Joon-hwan to once again direct the cult hit.
CJ ENM, which is behind the multiple Oscar wins of "Parasite," announced Saturday that it will remake the 2003 film in the United States. Will Tracy, who wrote HBO's "Succession," will adapt the screenplay for Hollywood.
The offbeat cult film revolves around Byung-gu, a paranoid man who believes that Earth is on the brink of alien invasion. Byung-gu tries to stop the aliens by kidnapping a powerful businessman Man-sik, suspecting him to be the leader of aliens from Andromeda.
Jang made his debut with "Save the Green Planet" and continued to direct thrillers "Hwayi: A Monster Boy" (2013) and "1987: When the Day Comes" (2017).
CJ Group Vice Chairwoman Lee Mi-kyung said in a statement, "One thing we learned from our success with Parasite is that audiences globally are excited to see genre-bending films with big themes. Jang is a master of this in his own right, and we're so glad to be working alongside Ari, Lars and Will to help translate what made the original so special to an English language version that feels relevant to what's going on today."
Ari Aster, director and writer of folk horror film "Midsommar," and producer Lars Knudsen will produce the English-language production under the banner of his production company Square Peg alongside CJ ENM.
"Swinging with youthful abandon between white-knuckle suspense, absurd slapstick, grim horror and a deeply felt (and earned) sense of tragedy, Save the Green Planet! is one of the most remarkable films to come out of South Korea ― among this recent wave or any wave, for that matter," Aster said in a statement.
This remake comes with CJ ENM's growing repertoire of English-language remakes in recent years including "Extreme Job" based on the Korean film of the same name and "Bye, Bye, Bye" based on "Sunny."
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