James Wan is set to produce a remake of 'Train to Busan'.

James Wan

James Wan

The horror movie icon - who has lent his directing and writing talents to franchises like 'Saw', 'Insidious' and 'The Conjuring' - is reportedly set to take on the Korean zombie movie with a script penned by 'The Nun' writer Gary Dauberman.

According to Collider, New Line Cinema is close to sealing a deal for the rights to the remake, while Deadline reported a bidding war has rumbled on with the likes of Universal, Paramount, Lionsgate and Screen Gems all involved.

The original 2016 thriller was a huge success in South Korea and across the world, with $85 million brought in at the box office, although the US box office only accounted for $2 million of that.

The film - directed by San-ho Yeon - followed passengers on a train from Seoul to Busan as a zombie apocalypse broke out in the country and left them all at risk.

An animated prequel called 'Seoul Station' was released less than a month later, and the latest news on a remake comes two years after it was revealed that French studio Gaumont would be taking on the English version.

The film's Korean distributor and financier Next Entertainment World's CEO Kim Woo-taek said at the time: "We are more than happy to start our business with Gaumont, one of the greatest film companies with rich experience in terms of global projects. We hope this opportunity could let Korean films get more attention and be familiar with the audience all over the world"


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