DreamWorks has secured the North American rights to TYPHOON, the most expensive Korean film ever made, reports VARIETY. The budget for the film is listed as $15 million, but it is rumored to have cost several million more.
The multi-language film was produced by South Korean major CJ Ent. The K.T. Kwak directed film follows a modern-day pirate planning a massive attack on North and South Korea.
Shot on location in Thailand, Korea and Russia, the blockbuster has earned a record 1.8 million admissions, which added up to $11.1 million, in Korea over its first five days of release.
Negotiations began last month after CJ sent a 50-minute promo to the studio.
Kwak and CJ execs will travel to the U.S. in January to iron out the details of an alternate cut of the film, which currently runs 124 minutes. Other issues to be discussed include the timing, scale and profit-sharing arrangement of the release.
CJ is a founding shareholder in DreamWorks and distributes the studio's films in Korea and selected Asian territories. It opened an office in Los Angeles this spring in an effort to target the U.S. market.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
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