Korean zombie film Train to Busan being remade by James Wan

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

A remake of the 2016 South Korean zombie film TRAIN TO BUSAN has been surprisingly slow to come together, given how well received and popular that movie was when it came out. It's been almost two years since French studio Gaumont acquired the rights to produce an English-language remake of the film, and we're only now hearing an update on their plans.

Gaumont is teaming with genre regular James Wan on the project. Wan will be producing the remake through his company Atomic Monster and has hired his frequent collaborator Gary Dauberman to write the screenplay. 

Directed by Yeon Sang-ho from a screenplay by Park Joo-suk, the original TRAIN TO BUSAN is a

harrowing zombie horror-thriller that follows a group of terrified passengers fighting their way through a countrywide viral outbreak while trapped on a suspicion-filled, blood-drenched bullet train ride to Busan, a southern resort city that has managed to hold off the zombie hordes… or so everyone hopes.

Five Hollywood studios have been pursuing the Wan/Gaumont remake, but the project looks likely to be set up at New Line Cinema – which makes sense, since Wan has been working with them for years on his "Conjuring Universe" projects.

TRAIN TO BUSAN was an awesome movie, and I have doubts that any remake could live up to it, although I'm open to watching it just to see more zombie mayhem. The one disappointing thing about this to me is the involvement of Dauberman. He's Wan's go-to guy, but I wasn't impressed by the scripts for THE NUN, or ANNABELLE, or WOLVES AT THE DOOR… ANNABELLE: CREATION scraped by and of course IT was a hit, but he was doing rewrites on that one. Dauberman doesn't seem like a good fit for this to me, but I hope to be pleasantly surprised.