Consider this your seasonal reminder that one of the baddest-ass actors of the last several years is on deck to return as a leading character favorite in the Beast Cop saga in The Roundup: No Way Out. We already have a few first looks at the star in the new film from director Lee Sang-yong and starring Don Lee, though hopefully a trailer won’t be too far off from now to stir things up.
Watch any of actor Don Lee’s earlier films and you’ll know he wasn’t as sizeable as he has been in the last, say, maybe eight or ten years. Regardless of whether his beefy build was a planned effort or not, however, you have to give it to him for using it to his advantage and ultimately paving a way for an evolution in Korean cinema of late with a raft of hard-hitting roles as a big, hard-hitting character with enough screen charisma to match the likes of Schwarzenegger and current business partner Stallone to name a certain few, which now brings us to Lee Sang-yong’s The Outlaws follow-up, The Roundup.
Multiple Korean news outlets are reporting that a third follow-up to Kang Yoon-sung’s 2017 cop thriller vehicle, The Outlaws, is well on the way with a forth installment already in development.
Fact is that even international film star Don Lee himself has alluded toward comedy roles as his preferred mode. There’s an interview out there from a few years back where he talks about this, and you can surely imagine the notion of just seeing him on screen and endulging in the overall charisma he brings to audiences in his performances.
Don Lee in “The Outlaws” (2017) – Credit: M-Line Distribution
Production is currently underway for The Roundup, a sequel to Kang Yoon-sung’s 2017 action hit, The Outlaws.Lee Sang-young is making his debut at the helm for a returning cast that currently sees Don Lee (The Gangster. The Cop. The Devil., Unstoppable, Along With The Gods 2: The Last 49 Days, upcoming The Eternals), and the new addition of actor Son Suk-ku (Hit-And-Run Squad), with filming expected to wrap this summer.The first film saw Lee at the wheel as Ma Suk-do, a.k.a. “the Beast Cop”, heading a small anti-crime task force and dispensing justice amid warring gangs and the rise of a vicious crime boss in a South Korean Chinatown district in 2004. The Roundup sees Ma, front and center once more on a mission to Southeast Asia to extradite a suspect where a ruthless killer who has been targeting tourists for years emerges.“Buyers have been telling us they are betting on Don Lee to become even more well-known after [The Eternals]. The Roundup release date hasn’t even been set yet, but it speaks to the strength of the content and the actor that these top distributors have bought the film,” said K-Movie Entertainment head of sales Sylvie Kim. K-Movie reps international sales on the project and has since landed multiple sales at EFM which wrapped its 2021 events on Friday. Japan was among the territories where the film scored release rights for distro company, Hian, who are also involved in a Japanese remake of the 2017 thriller; a Hindi language remake is also in tow from director Prabhu Deva for Zee Studios due this May, starring Salman Khan. (Screen)
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