Ridley Scott Might Be Eyeing the American Version of Korean Horror Flick ‘The Wailing’
The Korean supernatural horror movie The Wailing made waves last year as yet another fantastic K-horror by a talented director to make its way overseas, so its no wonder an American remake is being discussed. When the announcement was made, many rolled their eyes at the prospect, some wishing that Hollywood would just leave a good thing alone. But for those of us who are unsure about the idea, here’s some possibly good news: reports say that Ridley Scott’s production company is eyeing the rights.
In an interview with Screen Daily, Head of Fox International Production Korea Hosung Kim said that the possibility was being discussed with production company Scott Free, but it’s not yet a done deal.
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 [director] Na Hong Jin. But we are still in early stages of talks.
Even though the worry that an American version of a movie like this could be a bad idea, it could also be really good. Hollywood versions of Korean and Japanese horror movies have at times done incredibly well here — take The Ring, for example. A huge hit in Japan that became a huge hit over here (and spawned its own family of sequels that, well, let’s just not discuss those).
In the interview, Kim reminded everyone that the American version was still far from happening: “We’re being careful. As you know, there are a lot of remakes out there being developed [that haven’t come to fruition].” If anyone was going to do it, Ridley Scott would definitely be on my director wishlist, especially since the new Alien: Covenant looks so good. Let’s just hope they keep The Wailing’s fantastic title.
If you haven’t seen the original yet and are interested (and you should be), The Wailing is currently available to stream on Netflix.