The South Korean smash-hit zombie film Train to Busan is about to get very real with the launch of a virtual-reality immersive experience exhibition that will tour throughout Asia later this year.
Singapore-listed mm2 Asia is bringing the experience to life and will tour the continent in the second half of this year, CEO Chang Long Jong told The Hollywood Reporter at Filmart.
The VR experience tour is set to visit multiple destinations including southern China and the coastal Chinese cities, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, and hopefully return to South Korea, the film’s home country.
The zombie flick was a phenomenon in all of the above regions, except in China, where it has never been theatrically released. Train to Busan was the top-grossing Korean film in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, where it outperformed all Asian (including local Hong Kong) films.
The tour will be a larger exhibition that has a VR component produced and operated by mm2 Asia subsidiary effects house Vividtree Productions with respective local partners. Production and staging cost is projected at $45 million.
“You can play a character in the movie and be in the midst of the zombies,” mm2 Asia’s Chang said of the VR experience. “It can be thrilling. It is really something we believe the audience will enjoy.”
The content-producing company, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, acquired cinema chains in Singapore and Malaysia in 2017, in addition to its concert promotion branch and postproduction business. It became the first Singaporean film production company to be listed on SGX-ST Mainboard last summer.
