Given the rave reviews, multiple best-of-2016 appearances, and huge buzz, it’s not a big surprise that Na Hong-Jin‘s “The Wailing” is being eyed for a remake. But what is surprising are the questions of how an American version of the movie, which spins a semi-supernatural mystery that gets much of its color and humor from its rural Korean setting, would get the tone of the original right without stripping it of everything that made it so winning in the first place.
Ridley Scott‘s Scott Free is eyeballing the remake rights for “The Wailing” from Fox International, but Hosung Kim, head of the latter, expressed the challenge of trying to make a new version of the movie.
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“They said ‘The Wailing’ reminded them of films such as ‘The Exorcist,’ ‘The Ring‘ and ‘Seven,'” he told Screen Daily. “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.”
It would frankly be amazing to see Na Hong-Jin direct an American genre film (provided he gets the creative freedom necessary), but we’d rather see him doing something new and original in Hollywood rather than just readapt his own material. But it all seems tenuous that this might happen, and it sounds like Kim is being very protective of the original property.
“We’re being careful. As you know, there are a lot of remakes out there being developed [that haven’t come to fruition],” Kim added.
Well, if it has to happen, it sounds like everyone involved is making sure it’s done right. But do yourself a favor and watch “The Wailing” right now if you haven’t already.
