20th Century Fox Korea on Wednesday denied recent reports that it is withdrawing from producing Korean films, saying that there are no such plans as of now.
“There are several movies currently in production or waiting to be released (by Fox Korea),” an official from the company said. “20th Century Fox is currently undergoing reform at a structural level, so there will be some redistribution of work within the organization. But it is just not true that the company will be moving away from producing Korean films.”
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“The Wailing” (20th Century Fox Korea) |
20th Century Fox, a US-based film studio owned by the 21st Century Fox, has been undergoing changes since Walt Disney Company acquired its mother company in December of last year.
Earlier in the day, local media outlets reported that the Korean branch of the international film maker is pulling away from making Korean films, citing industry sources. The sources were quoted to be saying that the decision could be related to the aforementioned merger, which may lead to a merger of the two companies’ Korean units.
There was also the factor that the majority of the Korean films produced by the 20th Century Fox Korea have been commercial flops. Of the five movies released in the past six years, only “The Wailing,” directed by Na Hong-jin and opened in 2016, has been successful with 6.8 million tickets sold.
“Running Man (2013, 1.42 million),” “Slow Video (2014, 1.17 million),” “Intimate Enemies (2015, 133,553),” and even period piece “Warriors of the Dawn” starring big names like Lee Jung-jae and Yeo Jin-goo have commercially failed by only selling 836,886 tickets.
Fox was planning to release a film starring Sol Kyung-gu and Chun Woo-hee later in the year, but it was indefinitely put on hold after one of its stars Oh Dal-soo was accused of multiple cases of rape and sexual assault of fellow actresses.
By Yoon Min-sik
(
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)
