Hellbound director Yeon Sang-ho is set to partner with South Korean gaming company Smilegate to create a new fictional universe.
- READ MORE: The 10 best Korean dramas of 2021
Yeon, who is known for directing the 2021 Netflix K-drama Hellbound and the popular 2016 action-horror film Train to Busan, has signed an intellectual property partnership agreement to create a new with Smilegate, the co-developer of the video gameCrossfireX, according to a new Korea Times report.
Additionally, the new universe will spawn not only an original video game game, but additional content like TV series, movies and webcomics. The universe is set to be finished by next year, at the earliest.
“[The partnership] will allow Smilegate to go from a famous gaming company and expand its content universe into various fields, including movies, dramas, webcomics and variety shows,” said the gaming company’s chief visionary officer Kwon Hyuk-bin.
Smilegate was founded in 2002, and has developed several mobile and PC games over the years such as SoulWorker and Lost Ark. It’s most recent release was the FPS game Crossfire X, which dropped earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Yeon gained significant international recognition last year for the hit Netflix series Hellbound starring Yoo Ah-in. The star director is also set to helm Jung-E (working title), an upcoming futuristic sci-fi Netflix original series due out later this year.
Yeon previously shared that he was surprised by the attention Hellbound had received outside of Korea. “When I first talked about Hellbound with Netflix, I did not think that it would universally resonate with the audiences,” he said. “Originally, my target audience was a niche market of those who like this genre.”
The post ‘Hellbound’ director to create a new “universe” with ‘Crossfire X’ game developer appeared first on NME.
