Lee Wontae is an author, screenwriter, film producer and film director. After more than ten years of experience producing shows for TV network MBC, he quit his job and established alongside writer Kim Takhwan the company Wontak, with the aim of publishing novels and providing screenplays and treatments to film studios. Together, they came up with the concept of “movels”, novels that are written with the movie adaptations already in mind. The first such project to come to ...More

Lee Wontae is an author, screenwriter, film producer and film director. After more than ten years of experience producing shows for TV network MBC, he quit his job and established alongside writer Kim Takhwan the company Wontak, with the aim of publishing novels and providing screenplays and treatments to film studios. Together, they came up with the concept of “movels”, novels that are written with the movie adaptations already in mind. The first such project to come to fruition was the period drama <The Magician>, which hit theaters alongside the web novel in 2015, but before that Lee had been directly involved in the production of the rom-com <Spellbound> and led the development of <Papa> (2012) and <Gabi> (2012), all the while continuing to pitch concepts for TV programs. In 2017, he moved to film directing with the historical drama <MAN OF WILL>, about a Korean resistant during the years that preceded the Japanese Occupation. Lee was brought to international notice when his sophomore feature, the thriller <The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil> (2019), was screened out-of-competition in Cannes. The film not only was well received by the public, receiving Audience Awards both at the Fantasia Film Festival of Montreal (for Best Action Film) and the Sitges International Film Festival, it also spawned an American remake produced by Sylvester Stallone that is currently in the works. Two years later, Lee came back with <The Devil’s Deal> (2020), another thriller, but this time set in the world of corrupted politicians. Less