A scene from “Crash Landing On You” provided by tvN
SEOUL, Nov. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — A slew of South Korean hit TV series, like the romantic comedy “Crash Landing On You,” will be remade in the United States amid the expanding worldwide reception for Korean-made content led by the sensation “Squid Game.”
The 2019 smash hit rom-com, starring Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin, will get a Hollywood remake, reportedly co-planned and developed by Studio Dragon, the production studio of the original, and Netflix.
The 16-episode “Crash Landing On You,” which aired simultaneously on the South Korean cable channel tvN and Netflix in late 2019, is about star-crossed lovers from two Koreas, depicting the political and geographical division on the Korean Peninsula.
It became one of the most popular South Korean TV series in recent years, marking the highest viewership for the cable channel’s drama series. It also topped the most-viewed Netflix charts in many Asian regions, including Japan.
Studio Dragon earlier said it has plans to produce a U.S. remake of the popular fantasy romance drama “Hotel del Luna” (2019) in collaboration with Skydance TV.
The original series revolves around an elite hotel owner and manager of the namesake hotel only for ghosts, starring singer-actress IU and actor Yeo Jin-goo. It was one of the highest-rated Korean dramas on cable channels in that year.
Moreover, a U.S. remake of MBC TV’s 2016 popular fantasy thriller “W: Two Worlds Apart,” featuring a young surgeon’s adventure into a webtoon universe to look for her missing father, will be developed and produced by the CW, an American TV network.
Titled “Angel City,” the English-language version will be produced by Craig Plestis, who is behind the success of the U.S. edition of the Korean competition singing show, “The Masked Singer,” on Fox, according to a U.S. media outlet.
Cable channel OCN’s 2019 thriller “Trap” will be also adapted into an American drama series titled “The Club.”
With Starling Television as producer, Korean American Actor Ma Dong-seok, also known as Don Lee, will take the lead role in “The Club.”
A scene from Hotel del Luna” provided by tvN
The recent boom in U.S. remakes of Korean TV series came as Korean shows, like “Squid Game,” have been increasingly making their presence felt not only in Asia but also in North America and Europe thanks to global streaming platforms, like Netflix.
ABC’s medical drama “The Good Doctor,” based on the Korean show of the same title, and TNT’s dystopian thriller “Snowpiercer,” a TV series adaptation of Bong Joon-ho’s 2013 film, are just a few examples in the past.
At the same time, South Korean entertainment companies have been rolling up their sleeves to tap into Hollywood for years through investment and joint production.
CJ ENM, which created the Oscar-winning “Parasite” and is affiliated with Studio Dragon, acquired a managerial stake in Hollywood studio Endeavor Content a few weeks ago as part of its business strategy to go abroad.
The company is also leading a joint project to co-produce a TV series with Skydance TV, in which it took over a stake, for a U.S. original series for Apple TV+.
In June, JTBC Studios, which has made smash hit TV series, like “The World of the Married” (2020), purchased a majority stake in Wiip, the U.S. producer behind HBO’s popular series “Mare of Easttown” (2021).
It marked the South Korean company’s first entry into Hollywood.
(Yonhap)
