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The Beast Cop, Ma Seok-do, punched his way onto the screen and into our hearts with 2017's “The Outlaws”. Since then, as the feature's popularity and the star of its leading man Man Dong-seok raised, the singular production became a franchise and Ma Seok-do has ended up becoming an iconic character for the actor, who now returns to our screens for his fourth case in “The Roundup: Punishment”.

“The Roundup: Punishment” is released by Capelight Pictures

It's 2018 and while investigating the death of an app developer in Philippines in connection to a drugs case, detective Ma Seok-do's and his team uncover a huge illegal online gambling organisation. The man behind the organisation is closer to home, the rich genius It CEO Chang Dong-chul, who plans on becoming even richer with the introduction of his new cryptocurrency. He needs, though, his partner, the ruthless knife-wielding killer Baek Chang-gi to keep a...

Choi Jae-Hoon’s “The Killer” has it all: a missing young girl, a man in over his head and a conspiracy that goes all the way up to the top. If that sounds familiar, it’s because Choi’s film, though full of slick action, relies on familiar tropes from gritty thrillers of the past to make too much of a name for itself.

“The Killer” stars Jang Hyuk (Choi’s “The Swordsman”) as the titular killer, Bang Ui-gang, a semi-retired assassin-for-hire, eager to settle down with his wife (Lee Chae-young) and get into the home renovation business. She leaves him to go on an all-too-normal girls’ weekend, entrusting him with the responsibility of her friend’s stepdaughter, Kim Yoon-ji (Lee Seo-young), a 17-year-old girl with a wayward streak.

Ui-gang and Seo-young make for an odd pair: He’s a childless man in his 40s, with a stern, abiding sense of law and order,...

“Evil” will return to haunt Paramount+ viewers for a fourth season, the streamer said Wednesday. The news arrives just weeks after the supernatural mystery series from creators Robert and Michelle King debuted its third season.

“’Evil’ continues to expand its fanbase of both critics and viewers alike — Season 3 has a 100 rating on Rotten Tomatoes and it is a consistent top five most-watched original series and acquisition driver for the service,” said Nicole Clemens, presiden of Paramount+ Original Scripted Series. “We couldn’t be more excited to be terrified by what Robert and Michelle create for Season 4 with our outstanding cast bringing it to life.”

Four episodes of Season 3 are available to stream after the show’s June 12 return, which picked up moments after the Season 2 finale.

Also Read:

Paramount Lands ‘The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil’ Remake From Producer Sylvester Stallone

“Evil” aired its first season on CBS before parent...

You know what they say: when an international movie goes on to achieve critical acclaim and box office success, you just have no choice but to launch an American remake. Wait, nobody actually says that -- well, apart from IP-starved studio executives, at least -- but it's happened countless times before and you're never going to believe this, but it's happening once again!

We previously reported on the news that the 2019 South Korean thriller "The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil" was set to receive a U.S. remake. Directed by Lee Won-tae and led by "Eternals" and "Train to Busan" star Ma Dong-seok (who also goes by the...

The post Paramount Lands Sylvester Stallone's The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil Remake appeared first on /Film.

Paramount has landed the rights to remake the Korean action and crime film “The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil” that Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa Productions is producing as an English-language version.

Don Lee, a.k.a. Ma Dong-seok, who starred in the original 2019 film, will reprise his role in the English-language remake as a mob boss who teams up with a cop in order to track a serial killer.

Lee is also producing the remake alongside Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa Productions, Billy Acumen of B.A. Entertainment, and Chris Lee. The film is in the early stages of development.

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‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Is Now Tom Cruise’s First 1 Billion Box Office Hit

The remake of “The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil” was first unveiled with Stallone producing way back in 2019, shortly after the film made its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival out of competition. Won-Tae Lee directed and wrote the original film.

Exclusive: Paramount Pictures is set to remake acclaimed South Korean crime thriller The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil with original star Don Lee (aka Ma Dong-seok) reprising his lead role as a gang boss looking for redemption in the studio’s U.S. version.

Lee, whose acting credits also include Disney/Marvel’s Eternals and Korean blockbusters Train to Busan and The Roundup, is also producing under his U.S banner Gorilla 8 Productions; and alongside Chris S. Lee, CEO of B&c Content; Billy Acumen, CEO of BA Entertainment; and Sylvester Stallone and Braden Aftergood under their production banner, Balboa Productions. The U.S. remake is in the early stages of development.

The original film centered on fierce and feared gang boss Jang Dong-su (Lee), who barely survives a violent attack by an elusive serial killer. With his reputation damaged, the only way for Jang to restore his image is...

Scams and Swindles have often found a place in feature film narratives. Kim Gok and Kim sun, for their newest feature, also incorporate the modern problem of voice phishing into their new film “On the Line”.

Synopsis

Seo-joon falls victim to a voice phishing crime group. He loses everything. Seo-joon then works to find the head office of the voice phishing group in China. There, he meets Pro Kwak, who is a planner for voice phishing.

The action film stars Byun Yo-han (“The Book of Fish”) as Seo-joon and Kim Moo-yeol as Seo-joon and Pro Kwak respectively. They are joined by Park Hee-won (“The Man from Nowhere”) and Park Myung-hoon (“Parasite”). It is scheduled for a release in September, 2021.

Lee Won-tae’s thriller “The Devil’s Deal” reveals how revenge can twist anyone into something else when political hopeful Jeon Hae-woong (Cho Jin-woong) breaks bad after a stolen election. Betrayal and murder punctuate the film, set in the economic skin game of early ’90s Busan.

Debuting at Fantasia, “The Devil’s Deal” is produced by Seo Kang-ho and Billy Acumen. Lee’s previous feature “The Gangster, The Cop, the Devil” was a Cannes’ 2019 midnight screening.

Variety spoke with director Lee ahead of “The Devil’s Deal” debuting at Fantasia.

How did you approach the idea of revenge in “The Devil’s Deal”? Did you find it important to show different aspects of the theme?

I believe that there is no such thing as perfect revenge in the world. The process of revenge not only results in the opponent’s destruction but also in the destruction of the self. In this line of thought,...

Quebec’s Fantasia Festival has unveiled the third and final wave of titles set to screen at this year’s 25th edition and announced that Takashi Miike’s latest feature “The Great Yokai War – Guardians,” will close the festival. The world premiere of Julien Knafo’s Quebec zombie flic “Brain Freeze” will open the festival following an Aug. 4 pre-fest screening of James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad.”

“The Great Yokai War- Guardians” is the follow-up to Fantasia 2006 opener “The Great Yoki War,” and unspools in a fantasy world of Japanese demons, kaiju and pop culture references which proved a hit in Montreal the first time around.

Other key titles featured in the third wave lineup include Lee Won-tae’s “The Devil’s Deal,” his first film since “The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil” won Sitges’ best film award in 2019. BAFTA-winner Paul Andrew Williams’ (“Murdered for Being Different”) “Bull,” a revenge thriller,...

After the abysmal year for cinema that 2020 was, one can only hope that 2021 proves to be a lot better for films the world over. While the coronavirus situation ebbs and flows in various places, film releases are getting more and more frequent. Even if studios are still slightly hesitant to release some tentpole films, audiences are slowly finding their way back into the theatres.

Due to the delay in production and release on several projects last year, films that would otherwise have released back them are only now beginning to find their way into theatres or on Ott platforms, while some studios have even decided to indefinitely postpone production on some major titles. As a result, our list of Most Anticipated Korean Films of 2020 (which has been updated with the status of each project to the best of our knowledge) still remains valid and can be checked out to see...

Although continuously snubbed by critics and festivals, action movies still retain their popularity among mainstream audiences in particular, while a number of them frequently cross towards the cult category. The golden age of these movies, which parallels the pick of Hong Kong cinema and particularly of companies like Shaw Brothers, Golden Harvest and Milkyway Image, is long since gone. However, excellent productions continue to be released every year, with the scepters having been passed on to the Asean countries, particularly after the immense success of “The Raid”, which essentially kick-started a whole trend. At the same time, China/Hong Kong and S. Korea continue to release blockbusters of the category, while Japan always has the anime/manga adaptations, which frequently prove quite successful.

In an effort to select some of the best action/martial arts movies of the decade (2011-2020), we came up with 40 we felt were the ones that...

Exclusive first look image revealed for The Devil’s Deal.

South Korean investor-distributor Megabox Plus M is launching an international sales arm and has unveiled an initial slate led by The Devil’s Deal, directed by Lee Won-tae.

Lee’s last film was the 2019 Cannes midnight screenings title The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil starring Don Lee (aka Ma Dong-seok from Train To Busan). Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa Productions picked up the crime action film for English-language remake last year before its world premiere.

The Devil’s Deal is a political drama starring Cho Jin-woong, Lee Sung-min (The Man Standing Next) and Kim Moo-yul.

For many years now, the highly competitive domestic Korean film market shows a exponential growth. The Oscar winning streak of “Parasite” (2019) was one of the well-deserved results of this process. Celebrating its 101th birthday, the Korean film seems to be on its peak in terms of international recognition. “Parasite” gained a huge amount of attention and people start to turn their eyes to the foreign country. In 2019, “Parasite” had many other national competitors. For example the action thriller “The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil” starring Ma Dong-Seok and the historical blockbuster “The Battle: Roar to Victory” by Won Shin-Yun. Nevertheless, “Extreme Job” by Lee Byeong-Heon was the most successful film in Korean last year and outperformed “Parasite” with more than 16 Million moviegoers. It is more than surprising that Lee Sang-Geun’s debut film “Exit” took the third place of Korea’s movie market. Following the tradition of other apocalyptic Korean...

Set up by former Showbox executive Helen Jung, who had been behind multiple hit films such as historical drama “A Taxi Driver,” crime drama “Inside Men,” as well as disaster pic “Tunnel” and 2014 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title “A Hard Day,” Acemaker Movieworks began its journey in the Korean film industry in 2018.

As with several other new entrants at the time, Acemaker represented a combination of industry veterans and non-industry capital. It sourced its money from the former owner of cosmetic company Carver Korea, which Unilever acquired in 2017.

“[We] seek diversity in content and support creators without prejudice,” says the company in its mission statement. Acemaker’s line-up includes not only strong box- office hits, but also festival-acclaimed slates such as “The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil.”

Indeed, over the past two years, Acemaker has built up a colorful catalog of films, including 2019 Cannes Midnight Screening title “The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil,...

Actress Ra Mi-ran has taken quite the leap from supporting roles to leading roles of late. After impressing in last year’s female buddy-cop action comedy “Miss and Mrs. Cops“, she will now take the leading role in director Chang You-jeong’s latest film “An Honest Candidate”.

Synopsis

A comedy about a third term congresswoman named Joo Sang-sook who is an expert liar, but one day can’t lie anymore, with only a day to go before the elections.

Chang You-jeong is no stranger to comedy, with her previous two films being the Gong Yoo and Im Soo-jung starring “Finding Mr. Destiny” and the Ma Dong-seok, Lee Ha-nee and Lee Dok-hwi starring “The Bros”. “An Honest Candidate” also stars Kim Moo-yeol, who was last seen this year in “The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil” as the titular cop, and “Miss Granny” Na Moon-hee. It is scheduled to release in February,...

Based on an apparently true story from 2005, Lee Won-Tae (“Man of Will” 2017) creates a revenge film that crosses the line of morality more than once.

“Who are you?”, asks Jang Dong-Su on a rainy roadside right after he got stab several times by a psychopath. But little did the attacker knew that Jang is the head of a criminal gambling cartel and not easy to subdue. As he manages to escape, Jang begins a race with the cops. Who finds the serial killer first and what fate awaits him then?

“The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil” is screening at Slash Film Festival 2019

The search for the killer’s identity is accompanied by heavy usage of dramatic music, polished camera shots by Se-Seung Park (“High Society” 2018) and trenched in green and blue lightning (just like looking trough Jang Dong-Su’s colored sunglasses). The second feature of Korean director tells a solid crime story.

“I don’t believe Sylvester Stallone carries around a wallet,” says Braden Aftergood, the executive in charge of scripted development at the movie star’s content company Balboa Prods.

It’s not that Sly, as he’s known to friends and fans alike, is trying to duck out on a dinner bill. He never seems to have his license when the two men arrive at security at the various Los Angeles studio lots where they’ve been pitching film and TV projects since they partnered up last year.

“We’ll get in line and get to the security guard, and they ask for ID,” says Aftergood. “I give mine; then they look at Mr. Stallone. There’s a lot of exchanged glances, and the guards never know if they should demand something from him, and invariably he just passes through.”

Many of the projects they’re pitching clear similar hurdles.

In a strange way, watching a mediocre Korean thriller is almost as exhilarating as watching any of the legitimately great ones the country’s film industry continues to churn out — it’s wild to see how standards have gotten high enough that even a rambunctious serial killer saga with an ingenious premise and a swaggering Ma Dong-seok performance can still feel like something of a disappointment.

Such is the case with Lee Won-tae’s “The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil,” a giddy little bruiser that might feel like more of a refreshing kick to the chest if not for how much tamer it is than “The Good, the Bad, the Weird,” or how poor the plotting is when compared to a recent crime saga like 2013’s riveting “New World” (to name just two of the many superior movies that also happen to boast Ma’s barrel-chested charm). So while it...

Korea has dominated the midnight-movie/genre slots at international festivals so thoroughly of late that it’s hard not to view Lee Won-tae’s “The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil” in terms of its shortcomings in comparison to the likes of “Train to Busan,” “The Age of Shadows,” “The Wailing” and so on. But what this fun, slick but slightly forgettable hardboiled actioner lacks in terms of the energy, originality and inventiveness of a true Korean genre classic, it almost makes up for as a showcase for the burly charisma of star Don Lee, aka Ma Dong-Seok. Playing the criminal element of the title’s triptych Lee is a one-man weather system, so much so that he throws off the three-way balance a bit. The movie might as well be called “The Gangster…and Some Other Guys, Too, I Guess.”

The imbalance isn’t helped by the rather old-hat characterization of “the cop,...