At last report a few years ago, the U.S. remake of South Korean zombie action hit “Train to Busan” had been pulled off the release calendar by distributor Warner Bros. Pictures with no new date set.
Yeon Sang-ho’s acclaimed original 2016 feature starred Gong Yoo as a father who accompanies his estranged daughter on a train to Busan to visit his ex-wife. One ill passenger sparks a zombie outbreak on board. Ma Dong-seok co-starred.
The remake, titled “The Last Train to New York,” was in the development phase with filmmaker Timo Tjahjanto (“Nobody 2”) in talks to direct and Gary Dauberman (“Salem’s Lot”) adapting the screenplay. Then the calendar removal in 2022 indicated the pause button had been hit.
This week, producer James Wan tells EW that the project remains very much alive, saying “that’s definitely still a passion project of ours” before revealing that the movie isn’t a remake – it’s a spin-off set in the same universe:
“Creatively, it takes place in the same world as Train to Busan. It’s happening epidemically around the world. So if Train to Busan is this particular slice of the story in South Korea, we want Train to New York to be the one set in America. Everything about it is really exciting. I hope that could get off the ground eventually. Got to be honest with you, I’m not quite sure where it sits right now.”
Wan says he’s currently developing two or three projects right now for himself to direct, adding that “some of them are still too early to even talk about,” so he’s taking his time to develop them right.
The original “Train to Busan” was so successful, generating $98.5 million from an $8.5 million budget, it led to an animated prequel and a full standalone sequel titled “Peninsula” released in 2020.
