yeon sang ho

Gaumont Wins Bidding War To Remake Korean Zombie Hit, TRAIN TO BUSAN

Animator Yeon Sang-Ho made his live-action debut this with the hit action horror, Train To Busan. The film was a festival favorite during the summer and has since earned the favor of many a critic and moviegoer, in addition to a raft of studios competing for the English-language remake rights in a few months prior to its release. As it turns out, according to Variety, the victor now lies with Gaumont, beating out Canal+, Sony and other studios for the remake rights. Starring Gong Yoo and Ma Dong-Seok as a follow-up to Yeon’s 2014 animated movie, Seoul Station, the film centered around a father struggling to reconnect with his young daughter, only to get swept into an epic battle for survival when a mysterious viral outbreak consumes the Busan-bound bullet train they’re on, turning its passengers into rabid zombies. per Variety: “We are more than happy to start our business […]

Zombie Thrillride, TRAIN TO BUSAN Is Up For A Remake

Lee B. Golden III

The past 24 hours have been electric with echoes of a possible reimagining of filmmaker Yeon Sang-Ho’s hit zombie thriller, Train To Busan. That news now comes by way of THR‘s Heat Vision column who report of a bidding war now underway between Sony, 20th Century Fox, Gaumont, Canal+ and EuropaCorp and others pursuing the rights to the film. As a follow-up to Yeon’s 2014 animated movie, Seoul Station, Train To Busan sees actor Gong Yoo (The Suspect) as a father struggling to reconnect with his young daughter, only to get swept into an epic battle for survival when a mysterious viral outbreak consumes the Busan-bound bullet train they’re on. The film opened in South Korea and in select territories in the U.S. last month, and much to our delight as shown in the film’s expedient box office returns, beating Jon M. Chu’s Now You See Me 2 and the […]

Screener Review: TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016)

Director: Yeon Sang Ho Lead cast: Gong Yoo, Ma Dong Seok, Jung Yu Mi, Kim Soo An Seok Woo and his daughter take a high speed train to Busan. Just as the doors are about to close, a passenger infected with a mysterious virus dashes aboard and soon feeds on one of the attendants, causing a chain reaction, and quickly transforming the potential father-daughter journey time into a zombie fest on wheels. You can run to the nearby car, but how far can you really run on a moving bullet train? When assessing Train To Busan, it’s important to keep in mind that this is a zombie movie; it’s meant to deliver entertainment value, not intellectual or emotional enlightenment. Once I came to that agreement with myself, I found that I actually enjoyed it a lot. Though I must admit there were a couple scenes that tugged at my feelings, […]

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Get Your Kicks And Thrills In The New TRAIN TO BUSAN Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Straight from the festivities at Cannes and with prospects awaiting its releases in multiple territories, director Yeon Sang-Ho’s newest venture, Train To Busan (the follow-up to his 2015 animated feature, Seoul Station) is getting a July 20 release in Korean cinemas. Last month’s first teaser was pretty short but very sweet with a glimpse into the chaos-ridden environment offset by a viral zombie outbreak, but now we have a full-on trailer that immerses you further into mankind’s contained battle on the undead. SYNOPSIS: A mysterious viral outbreak pushes Korea into a state of emergency! As an unidentified virus sweeps the country, Korean government declares martial law. Those on an express train to Busan, a city that has successfully fended off the viral outbreak, must fight for their own survival… 453 km from Seoul to Busan. The struggle to survive by those who have others to protect! Get on board to […]

Yeon's TRAIN TO BUSAN Boards Well Go USA

Lee B. Golden III

Director Yeon Sang-Ho’s apocalyptic zombie thriller, Train To Busan, has not been without a bit of controversy as of late with its most recent trailer. As it stands, the film represents something of an unacknowledged film funding effort by filmmaker Arne Venema who reportedly took his pitch to Busan two years ago, which had been rejected at the time. Two years later though, it appears that the most recent trailer presented last month bares the very similarities echoed in Venema’s own reaction. To his credit though, it appears to be a very exciting concept and it’s unfortunate that any malfeasance hasn’t been uncovered before then, and so hopefully the facts will come out and Venema will be able to walk away with the credit he feels he deserves. At any rate, anime filmmaker Yeon Sang-Ho makes his live action segway here following up on his 2015 animated feature, Seoul Station. Well […]

TRAIN TO BUSAN Is Packed With Anarchy In The First Teaser Ahead Of Cannes

Lee B. Golden III

Filmmaker Yeon Sang-Ho is setting a course for Cannes next week with a midnight premiere of his South Korean zombie epic, Train To Busan. The film is a follow-up to his 2015 anime feature, Seoul Station, now with Yeon seuging into a live-action debut with The Suspect star Gong Yoo as one of dozens of passengers aboard a KTX train fighting to survive amid a sprawling zombie uprising. Anime is considerably Yeon’s speciality having garnered him plenty of praise since previously hitting the Cannes scene with the first of three titles, the 2011 anime, The King Of Pigs. Alas with Train To Busan, Yeon becomes a trailblazer as the first South Korean director to attend Cannes with both live-action and anime on his resume, and the film has a new teaser rolling online this week which clearly indicates just how good he is at what he does, which makes this […]