Korea Tagged Articles at Cinematical

According to this morning's Variety, Elisha Cuthbert is in final negotiations to star in My Sassy Girl, a remake of a massive Korean hit (the original out-earned everything in sight, including Hollywood releases like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring) about a girl with slightly anti-social tendencies. In the American version, Cuthbert will play "a reckless, brazen girl who turns the life of a small-town guy from the Midwest upside down" (so, of course, the movie will shoot in New York). The remake's screenplay was adapted by Vic Levin, and will be directed by Frenchman Yann Samuell, who is making his English-language debut; production begins in October.

While I've not seen the original, it's vaulted to the top of my must-see list based on the reviews I can find online. It sounds wildly irreverent and completely insane, two qualities that seem unlikely to be translated successfully into the American version, since Hollywood is generally unwilling to make its love-object characters too unhinged (in the original, the girl is a "hard-drinking chick who can only express herself through physically assaulting strangers, slinging insults and passing out"). I suppose we can hope, but it won't surprise me in the least if the remake is heavy on the romance and light on the aggression and bizarre behavior -- unless, of course, the latter only shows how troubled the girl is, and how badly she needs to be rescued.

The American film industry has traditionally viewed foreign film production primarily as competition. Lately, however, there has been a change, and the past few months have seen more serious stories about possible long-term collaborations -- specifically with Bollywood and South Korea, two thriving industries -- than ever before. One of the studios putting its money where its mouth is is Universal, who last night announced that Focus Features and Korea's LJ Film will co-produce a (primarily) English-language film about the life of "Julia Mullock, an American interior designer who married the last crown prince of Korea." According to Variety, the cost for the production (estimate to be in the $20-25 million range) will be split by the two companies, and Focus will own foreign rights to the film.

Though the marriage between Mullock and Kyu Lee (AKA Gu, Prince of Korea) took place in the 1950s, after the Korean royal family had ceased to have an official role, it nevertheless seems to have been a bit of a scandal, and Lee was ultimately forced by his family to divorce Mullock in 1982 because she had been unable to give him an heir. (What do you think are the odds are that the movie will feature a scene in which she says "I'M BARREN!"? Fingers crossed, people. Fingers crossed.)

Focus and LJ hope to have the film in theaters some time next year.

Just when the folks at Sony thought the court battles were over, and that everything was full-speed ahead for the world domination spearheaded by the release of The Da Vinci Code, news comes of another lawsuit, in another country. The Christian Council of Korea, the country's largest Christian group, has filed an injunction against the film's release there, saying that it "may disparage and insult the divinity of Jesus Christ," and could also lead to confusion if viewers "believe that [the] fictional tale is historical fact."

While on the surface such a charge seems incapable of standing up in court (fictional films present their own version of reality ALL THE TIME, you can't stop them just because audiences are guillble), a similar suit was actually successful last year, when documentary footage was ordered removed from The President's Last Bang (a satirical film about the assassination of South Korean president/dictator Park Chunghee), because of concerns that viewers would be "confused" about what was real. And on the subject of religiously-themed films, Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ went unreleased for years in Korea and was eventually only seen in a few theaters, due entirely to "pressure from religious groups."

Yeah. So Sony, it might be a good idea to keep those lawyers around for a little while. You know, just in case.