Nearly a decade after Dimension Films first tried their hands at an English-language remake of the film, New Line Cinema’s The Man From Nowhere is back on track with John Wick scribe Derek Kolstad penning the script and franchise director Chad Stahelski signing on to produce, according to Deadline.
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Released in 2010 and written and directed by Lee Jeong-beom, the film focuses on Cha Tae-sik, a quiet and mysterious pawnshop keeper with a violent past who embarks on a bloody rampage through the drug-and-trafficking ring in hopes of saving a child who is his only friend. The action-thriller went on to become the highest-grossing film in South Korea in its year of release, grossing over $43 million and holding the number one spot at the box office for five weeks.
Sources report that the latest attempt at remaking the hit thriller for American audiences is being fast-tracked by New Line Cinema following the latest draft from Kolstad, who were very excited with what was delivered, and are looking to begin meeting with directors for the project soon as Stahelski is not expected to step into the director’s chair for the film. The John Wick director will produce the project with Jason Spitz via their 87Eleven Entertainment banner alongside CJ E&M.
The Man From Nowhere was first set up at Dimension Films in March 2012 with the studio signing Oscar winner Shawn Christensen (Curfew, The Vanishing of Sidney Hall) to pen the script for the adaptation but after years of languishing in development hell and financial problems seeing their output drop drastically in recent years, it never materialized.
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Stahelski and Kolstad both have their upcoming calendar full of major projects, with the former currently developing a reboot fo the cult classic Highlander at Lionsgate as well as the long-awaited John Wick spin-off series The Continental at Starz and spin-off film Ballerina with Len Wiseman (Underworld) directing. Kolstad recently signed on to pen the long-in-development live-action film adaptation of the Just Cause franchise as well as acting as executive producer and writer for a Splinter Cell anime series at Netflix.
(Photo Credits: Jörg Carstensen/picture alliance via Getty Images and Steve Granitz/WireImage)
