Park Han-sol reports on Korea's financial regulators, along with fintech and insurance. She previously wrote about the art world, from biennales and exhibitions to fairs and auctions, with a focus on Seoul and the figures shaping the scene. Before joining The Korea Times, she spent a year at ABC News' Seoul bureau, contributing to coverage of major Asia-Pacific events.
Bestselling historical epic 'Goguryeo' to be remade into TV series
Author Kim Jin-myung / Korea Times file
By Park Han-sol
By Park Han-sol
Author Kim Jin-myung's best-selling historical epic series, “Goguryeo,” will be remade into a blockbuster television series.
The dramatic royal narratives set in Goguryeo (37 B.C.-668 A.D.), one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea in the northernmost part of the peninsula, will revolve around five kings ― Micheon, Gogugwon, Sosurim, Gogugyang and Gwanggaeto the Great.
Currently at the screenwriting stage, the show is slated for production with a budget of some 100 billion won ($89.7 million) by the entertainment agency IOK Company, which recently signed a license agreement with the author.
“With a lack of epic historical dramas being produced in the Korean entertainment scene recently, we hope to turn Goguryeo into a Korean version of Game of Thrones,” an agency official said.
The company added that it plans to export the content to Southeast Asian countries, where Korean historical dramas are in high demand, and target the global market through OTT (over-the-top) platforms.
Currently, six books from the “Goguryeo” series have been released, with the seventh scheduled be published June 14. It will end as a 10-part series next year.
After debuting with “The Rose of Sharon Blooms Again,” which sold more than a million copies in Korea in 1993, Kim has authored other well-known books, including “Jikji,” THAAD” and “Virus X.”