In the wake of smashing the box office record for the highest single day gross in Korean history, showing on 1,738 screens and collecting $34.3 million from 4.75 million admissions within five days of its release, Train to Busan, South Korea's first zombie action-horror film is proving to be unstoppable. It has sparked a bidding war for remake rights from 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures, while France's Gaumont, Canal Plus and EuropaCorp are also hot on the trail which could drive the price even higher as bidding grows heated.
Ma Dong-seok plays a desperate passenger fighting to protect his pregnant wife onboard Train To Busan.
"Several major Hollywood studios, as well as top French and European companies, have made inquiries about remake rights, with some even making offers," said Contents Panda senior manager Danny Lee who is handling the international rights, while Seoul-based Next Entertainment World (NEW) is producing the film. "There seem to be more ways for French filmmakers and audiences to relate to the story because bullet trains are a big part of daily life there, as in Korea," he added.
Gong Yoo (father) and Kim Su-Ahn (daughter) in “Train to Busan,” Korea first zombie action horror movie.
The film takes place on a KTX train traveling from Seoul to Busan, and it focusses on a bunch of travelers attempting to survive a viral breakout which would puts the slow moving zombies from The Walking Dead and Romero's Night of The Living Dead to shame.
All hell breaks loose as a group of students fight to stay alive on the bullet train.
Gong Yoo (The Suspect, Silenced), is a divorced, but successful hedge fund manager whose neglected daughter asks him to take her to Busan on her birthday to visit her mother. It’s supposed to be a short hour-long bullet train ride from Seoul, but a recently infected girl has made it onto the train and mere minutes later she starts attacking the people on the train one by one, turning them into zombies. In order to avoid getting bitten by zombies, the uninfected fight for their lives hiding and running toward safe compartments until they reach Busan.