Will Cell Phone get a Hollywood remake?

9 February 19, 2009February 19, 2009

by javabeans

There’s a lot of news out currently about the thriller Cell Phone, mostly because of its theatrical release this week.

Reportedly, licensing negotiations are under way for a Hollywood remake of the thriller, which stars two great actors, Uhm Tae-woong (Devil) and Park Yong-woo (My Scary Girl). That sure is fast; these talks began in advance of the premiere, as the movie just came out today (the 19th).

A representative from M-LINE, the company in charge of overseas sales, explained that the negotiations are with a “major agency,” which grew interested after seeing the screenplay while the film was still in production. That interest grew upon seeing a preview of the film at the recent Berlin Film Festival’s sales market, after which they officially broached the topic of negotiations. (Following Berlin, producers received inquiries of licensing rights for a Japanese remake as well.)

The plot involves a cell-phone-dependent CEO (Uhm Tae-woong) whose mobile falls into the wrong hands. Park Yong-woo is the bad guy who threatens evilry; plot twistiness ensues.

I can see the appeal of a remake, actually; it’s the kind of story that’s adaptable across cultures. With Uhm and Park — and director Kim Han-min of Paradise Murdered — I have high expectations of this film. Without them, though? Eh. Could go either way.

Via Star News, Beta News

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1 Angela

February 19, 2009 at 1:22 PM

Didn't they already make a rather similar movie with Ewan McGregor and Hugh Jackman recently? I vaguely remember it...never saw it, of course, but...y'know...

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2 jknyc

February 19, 2009 at 1:41 PM

They already made a cell phone based movie entitled "Cellular" starring Chris Evans (Fantastic Four), Jessica Biel (Justin Timberlake's girlfriend) and Kim Basinger (Alec Baldwin's ex wife and Academy Award winner for LA Confidential). I'm pretty sure that the story lines are not exactly the same but the idea of making another movie built around a cell phone premise seems kind of silly in my opinion. Especially seeing as how Cellular was a really bad movie and financially unspectacular.

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3 ichigopan

February 19, 2009 at 1:49 PM

Is that a sore on Uhm Tae-woong's lip in the poster? Did anyone else notice his cold sores while watching the Devil or was it it just me? Someone get the man some Carmex or ginseng supplements!

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Lain

March 9, 2012 at 6:58 PM

Lmao I was looking on the net to see if anyone else commented on his lip sores. abreva helps i hear. haha, I think he just has skin problems in general, poor guy. I noticed how bad it was in Handphone.

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4 boraaah

February 19, 2009 at 3:36 PM

@3 - let's not forget "celluar" was remade into a Hong Kong flick.

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5 ed

February 19, 2009 at 5:56 PM

That's right, Cellular was remade by Benny Chan into Connected, which is kick-ass, over the top action and thrills with nice Hong Kong flavors. Localization, babeee! These remakes just line up the middlemen's pockets nicely, while earning a morsel of "name value" (which fluctuates like the stocks :D ) for the filmmakers involved.
I bet Roy Lee is involved in the deals (he got like 300K for Seven Days which sold for 1M to Hollywood), seeing he doesn't allow competitors in his "niche".

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6 Masaya

February 19, 2009 at 6:36 PM

What the hell? Why does Park look so tiny comparing to Uhm's big face in the poster?

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7 Jess

February 24, 2009 at 9:13 AM

Of course if they remake it in the US they'll have to cripple a lot of the cell phone features :)

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8 Naing

April 4, 2009 at 3:50 AM

I like tae woong a lot, will this movie Handphone come to Singapore ?
I surely will support him =)
Happy Birthday in advance Oppa :-) Love you always :p