Korean Historical Thriller ‘The Night Owl’ Licensed to China for Remake

South Korean film studio Next Entertainment World (NEW) reports that period thriller “The Night Owl” has been licensed for remake in China.

It claims that its deal is the highest price ever paid for rights to remake Korean IP in China, but it declined to disclose either the value of the deal or the identity of the buyer.

South Korea and China maintain frosty diplomatic relations and, despite Korean content being hugely popular worldwide, film industry relations have been frozen as a consequence. No Korean film has had a theatrical release in China for nearly a decade.

But remakes are a way around the problem. Chinese companies have adopted the practice of licensing and remaking Korean films and TV shows in order to play down the origins of the story and to be able to legitimately claim that their titles now have Chinese nationality. 

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