Another day, another foreign horror film might be remade by Hollywood. This time around, the acclaimed South Korean epic The Wailing could get the American treatment under producer Ridley Scott. Of course, there might be some obstacles he needs to overcome first if it’s going to happen.
As reported by Screen Daily (via /Film), Scott’s Scott Fire wants Na Hong Jin’s horror-thriller hit to make its way into the States. After the movie won Best Picture at the Korean Film Reporters’ Association on Wednesday evening, Hosung Kim, head of FIP Korea, noted that one of Scott’s representatives called him, expressing interest in doing an English-language remake.
Here’s what Kim said:
They said The Wailing reminded them of films such as The Exorcist, The Ring and Seven. The locality and sensibility of The Wailing is so strong that I don’t think it would be easy to do a Western remake, and it will be important who directs it. So I told him I think the only director who could do the remake is Na Hong Jin. But we are still in early stages of talks.
Kim also emphasized that neither he nor Jin “ruled out any eventuality at this stage.”
While Jin’s interested in working in Hollywood, the director hasn’t made any concrete plans just yet.
We’re being careful. As you know, there are a lot of remakes out there being developed [that haven’t come to fruition].
It’s easy to see why Scott would be interested in such a proposition. The Wailing was a critical/financial smash in South Korea, and it’s earned a healthy following in the U.S. as well — especially as the foreign horror film is currently streaming on Netflix. Of course, much ado about nothing has come from such talks, but Hollywood appears interested, at least — and that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Still, The Wailing is, unquestionably, a very Korean film, and it’ll be difficult to Americanize it in any way. Then again, that hasn’t stopped Hollywood before.
