Is it just me, or have there been an unusual amount of remakes in the news today? That's just the way of Hollywood I guess, but it becomes a little grueling at some point. But more than TOMB RAIDER, more than HOUSEBOUND, no remake puts a knot in my stomach like the thought of an English-language update of TRAIN TO BUSAN that just got greenlit by French studio Gaumont.
The Korean zombie flick from director Yeon Sang-ho is by far my favorite genre film of the year, and the idea of throttling its power with a needless remake is more than a little upsetting. However, there is one thing that's keeping me afloat. The political allegory baked into every frame of BUSAN will be transplanted into a U.S. setting, says a representative for Gaumont, whose L.A. branch will be handling the production.
In this heated political climate, it might be interesting to see what a socially-minded zombie film could cook up. Of course, I'd rather hand it off to George Romero than package it in a remake, but the upcoming political environment is ripe for horror filmmakers, and TRAIN TO BUSAN could fit snugly inside that.
In the original TRAIN TO BUSAN:
TRAIN TO BUSAN is a harrowing zombie horror-thriller that follows a group of terrified passengers fighting their way through a countrywide viral outbreak while trapped on a suspicion-filled, blood-drenched bullet train ride to Busan, a southern resort city that has managed to hold off the zombie hordes… or so everyone hopes.
TRAIN TO BUSAN stars Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-Mi, Ma Dong-Seok, and Kim Eui-Sung. It was directed by Yeon Sang-Ho.