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Year 2013 has come. Last year, Korean films met over 100 million spectators as the industry significantly expanded its size. However, 2013 is expected to be even more impressive with directors that have worked on global projects, notably KIM Jee-woon, PARK Chan-wook, and BONG Joon-ho, planning to introduce their international debuts.

 

First of all, KIM Jee-woon’s The Last Stand has confirmed its opening in US on January 18 and in Korea in the middle of February. The Last Stand is a blockbuster film produced by Di Bonaventura Production and is to be distributed by CJ Entertainment. It has been getting interest from people for its star Arnold SCHWARZENEGGER, marking his comeback.

 

It is about a drug smuggler who runs away during a trial and a local sheriff who’s trying to catch him. As a recent trailer showed, KIM Jee-woon’s action scenes seem topnotch. KIM Jee-woon is well known abroad for his A Tale of Two Sisters which was subsequently remade as The Uninvited.

 

People wil be paying particularly close attention for his choice to take on an action film rather than an indie feature which is the most common route for non-English directors entering Hollywood.

 

PARK Chan-wook’s Hollywood debut movie Stoker is going to be released in Korea first in Feb 28 and in the US on March 1. It has been getting people’s attention not only for being PARK Chan-wook’s first film in the US but also because the scenario was written by Wentworth MILLER, the main character from the popular TV Series Prison Break. It is also produced by Ridley SCOTT and the late Tony SCOTT and stars Nicole KIDMAN, Matthew GOODE, Mia WASIKOWSKA.

 

It is a mystery thriller about a strange uncle coming to see his niece India after she loses loses her father in an accident and her mother Evelyn. It is to be distributed by Fox Searchlight. When the teaser was released in US reactions were very positive.

 

BONG Joon-ho is coming back with the global co-production Snowpiercer. This film is being targeted for a global market by CJ Entertainment and received an enormous investment of 45 billion won. It is based on a French Sci-Fi graphic novel that won the grand prize at the Angouleme International Comic Festival. It features a group of people living in the last vestige of Earth, a train known as the "Snowpiercer."

 

Octavia SPENCER and John HURT from Hellboy, Ewen BREMMER from Trainspotting and Chris EVANS from The Avengers make up the cast. Korean actor SONG Kang-ho was also cast and most of the shooting took place in the Czech Republic and Austria. It raised interest from overseas buyers followying a 10-minute clip which was shown at the American Film Market last November.

 

BONG Joon-ho explained of his movie “Mankind has met with a new ice age and survivors live on a train that is sub-divided into different classes. The last compartment of the train is more like a prison camp and the leader of the room stages a riot against the authorities and the rich, going forward to the front of the train while fighting their enemies.” This film is still undergoing post production and the date of its release is highly expected. It has been picked up for distribution by the Weinstein Company for English speaking countries.