Deok Noh will direct the Korean remake of hit Indian thriller ‘Drishyam,’ Choi Jae-won, president of Korea’s Anthology Studios confirmed to Variety at the Busan’s Asian Contents & Film Market.
The remake of the Drishyam franchise in Korea with Anthology and India’s Panorama Studios in partnership, was unveiled in 2023 at Cannes.
Panorama Studios is backed by producer Kumar Mangat Pathak and Abhishek Pathak, while Anthology Studios is founded by former Warner Bros. local Korean production head, Choi Jae-won (aka Jay Choi), “Parasite” actor Song Kang-ho and acclaimed director Kim Jee-woon.
South Korean filmmaker Deok Noh broke through with the 2013 romantic comedy “Very Ordinary Couple,” which won the Asian New Talent Award at the Shanghai International Film Festival. She pivoted to a darker register with the 2015 newsroom thriller “The Exclusive: Beat the Devil’s Tattoo,” before moving into episodic storytelling with the sci-fi anthology “SF8” in 2020 and the Netflix mystery series “Glitch” in 2022.
Written and directed by Jeetu Joseph, the Malayalam-language “Drishyam” (2013) was headlined by superstar Mohanlal. It followed a cable TV operator whose simple world splinters after an accidental death involving his family, and his desperate measures to shield them from the law. The massive success of the film spawned hit remakes in several languages – in Kannada as “Drishya” (2014), starring Ravichandran, in Telugu as “Drushyam” (2014), starring Venkatesh, in Tamil as “Papanasam” (2015), starring Kamal Haasan, in Hindi as “Drishyam” (2015), starring Ajay Devgn and in Sinhala as “Dharmayuddhaya” (2017), starring Jackson Anthony. A Chinese remake “Sheep Without a Shepherd” (2019), starring Xiao Yang, grossed $199 million.
The Malayalam-language “Drishyam 2” was completed during the pandemic and had a direct-to-streaming release on Prime Video in 2021, followed by the Telugu-language “Drushya 2,” also on the service. The Kannada-language “Drishya 2” had a theatrical release the same year. The Hindi-language “Drishyam 2” was one of the biggest Bollywood hits of 2022, grossing $45 million worldwide.
The property is also being remade in English, with production by Panorama Studios with U.S. companies Gulfstream Pictures and JOAT Films.
The Korean remake will begin filming next year, Choi told Variety.
Anthology’s “The Hole,” directed by Kim Jee-Woon and starring Theo James, “Squid Game” breakout Hoyeon, Yeom Hye-ran and Golden Globe winner Christian Slater, was acquired for worldwide distribution by Amazon MGM’s Orion Pictures Label in a multi-million dollar deal at Cannes this year.
