France’s ‘Point Blank’ Getting South Korean Makeover

In addition to a rumored Mark Wahlberg produced Hollywood treatment, French crime actioner Point Blank will also soon be remade for the South Korean audience.

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Juhn Jai-hong, who once assisted the art-house favorite Kim Ki-duk (this year’s Venice Golden Lion winner for Pieta), will helm the new Asian version. The project is currently being scripted and production is due to begin in the latter half of 2013.

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Juhn debuted with Beautiful in 2008, a psychological drama based on a story by Kim. The film was invited to the Berlin International Film Festival that year, and the director went on to achieve both critical and commercial success with his follow-up, the inter-Korean spy drama Poongsan.

The Asian makeover of Point Blank will be produced by Syd Lim at Barunson and Young Films, whose past works include critically appraised box office hits such as Kim Jee-woon's “kimchi western” The Good, the Bad, the Weird, Bong Joon-ho's mystery thriller Mother and Kim Dae-woo's erotic period drama The Servant.

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The original film, a $14 million project produced by LGM and Gaumont, and directed by Fred Cavaye, is about a man struggling to rescue his pregnant wife from abductors (unrelated to John Boorman's 1967 classic of the same title).

Jay Lee at Barunson and Yohann Comte at Gaumont negotiated the Korean remake deal. Gaumont will handle international sales outside of Asia.