Seven years ago, it was announced that James Wan would be producing a remake of the South Korean zombie film Train to Busan (watch it HERE) called The Last Train to New York. At one point, Timo Tjahjanto (The Night Comes for Us) was on board to direct, with Warner Bros. planning to give the film a theatrical release on April 21, 2023. Obviously, that didn’t happen. The film never went into production. But all this time later, Wan still considers The Last Train to New York to be a passion project… and he doesn’t think it should be called a remake. Rather, it’s a spin-off that’s set in the same world as the original film.
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.
The screenplay for the remake / spin-off was written by Gary Dauberman, who previously wrote the Wan productions Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation, Annabelle Comes Home (which he also directed), The Nun, and Salem’s Lot (he directed that one, too). Wan and Michael Clear were on board to produce The Last Train to New York through their company Atomic Monster. Gaumont’s Nicolas Atlan and Terry Kalagian were also producing, along with Coin Operated’s Dauberman. Judson Scott, Sidonie Dumas, Christophe Riandee, and Johanna Byer were set to serve as executive producers.
When Entertainment Weekly asked him what’s going on with the project, Wan answered, “That’s definitely still a passion project of ours. Creatively, it takes place in the same world as Train to Busan. It’s happening epidemically around the world. So if Train to Busan is this particular slice of the story in South Korea, we want Train to New York to be the one set in America. Everything about it is really exciting. I hope that could get off the ground eventually. Got to be honest with you, I’m not quite sure where it sits right now.“
Yeon Sang-ho also made an animated prequel to Train to Busan that was called Seoul Station, and followed the film with a sequel released under the title Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula.
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