JANG Joon-hwan Teams Up with Ari ASTER for US SAVE THE GREEN PLANET Remake

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JANG Joon-hwan Teams Up with Ari ASTER for US SAVE THE GREEN PLANET Remake

May 20, 2020

Writer by Pierce Conran
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CJ Entertainment and Lars KNUDSEN Board English-Language Version of Korean Cult Classic

Director JANG Joon-hwan is set to revisit his debut film, the cult classic Save the Green Planet (2003), after signing on to direct an English-language adaptation of the film. The film will be produced by Square Peg, the company founded by the rising star director Ari ASTER, known for Midsommar (2019) and Hereditary (2018), and his producing partner Lard KNUDSEN, as well as PARASITE (2019) studio CJ Entertainment, while Will TRACY, scribe of the HBO series Succession, will pen the remake.

Save the Green Planet (2003) follows a bizarre young man’s plan to abduct a company CEO who he believes to be an alien from Andromeda. The young man, played by SHIN Ha-kyun, tortures his victim, played by BAEK Yoon-sik, in the basement of his secluded home on the mountains. The film is the ultimate genre mashup, combining sci-fi, torture porn, romance, fantasy, procedural thriller, horror and social allegory. Though a commercial failure upon its original release, it was embraced on the festival circuit and has turned into a cult favorite at home and overseas.

ASTER shared his love for JANG’s film in a statement: “Swinging with youthful abandon between white-knuckle suspense, absurd slapstick, grim horror and a deeply felt (and earned) sense of tragedy, Save the Green Planet (2003) is one of the most remarkable films to come out of South Korea — among this recent wave or any wave, for that matter.”

Director JANG went on to make the thriller Hwayi: A Monster Boy (2013) and the smash hit political drama 1987: When the Day Comes (2017). This project would serve as his English-language debut.

Save the Green Planet (2003) is one of many CJ properties that the studio is developing new English-language versions of, following other updates currently in development of Sunny (2011) and Extreme Job (2019).

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