CJ Entertainment Ventures onto the Croisette with THE SPY GONE NORTH

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CJ Entertainment Ventures onto the Croisette with THE SPY GONE NORTH

May 14, 2018

Writer by Pierce Conran
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Korean Studio Presents Explosive Lineup in Cannes Marché

Korea’s CJ Entertainment returns to the official selection at Cannes for the fourth year on the trot with their upcoming North Korea-themed espionage drama The Spy Gone North (2017). Meanwhile, the company is also busy on the Marché floor with a heavy lineup of major genre titles due for release in the coming months.

The Spy Gone North is the latest film from Nameless Gangster : Rules of the Time (2012) director YOON Jong-bin and features HWANG Jung-min (Veteran, 2015) as a South Korean agent who infiltrates the North during the 1990s to gain intel on their nuclear program. The film co-stars CHO Jin-woong (The Handmaiden, 2016), LEE Sung-min (The Sheriff in Town, 2017) and JU Ji-hoon (Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds, 2017) and is screening in the Midnight Screenings section at Cannes, where CJ has had several films in the past, including CHANG’s The Target (2014) and BYUN Sung-hyun’s The Merciless (2017).

Prior to YOON’s spy drama, which is scheduled for opening later in the summer at home, CJ will be releasing their buddy investigative comedy-thriller sequel The Accidental Detective 2: In Action in Korea next month. The film reunites KWON Sang-woo’s amateur sleuth with SUNG Dong-il’s weathered detective on a new missing person’s case. Stepping into the director’s chair is E.oni, who last made the women’s kidnap thriller MISSING (2016).

Upcoming action extravaganza Take Point will reunite KIM Byung-woo and HA Jung-woo, the director and star of the 2013 chamber thriller The Terror, LIVE. HA stars as an elite mercenary who takes on a covert CIA mission to kidnap a North Korean minister in 2024 on the eve of the presidential election in the United-States. The film co-stars LEE Sun-kyun (A Hard Day, 2014) as well as Tony Award-winning actress Jennifer Ehle (A Quiet Passion) and Hollywood character actor Kevin Durand (X-Men Origins: Wolverine).

In LEE Jong-suk’s The Negotiation, a star vehicle for SON Ye-jin of The Last Princess (2016) and Hyun-bin of Confidential Assignment (2017), SON plays a hostage negotiator who goes head-to-head with a criminal played by Hyun-bin, who has kidnapped her supervisor. The film marks the return of hit filmmaker LEE Seok-hoon, who has last helmed The Pirates in 2014 (also with SON in the lead) and is the latest production by JK Film, which produced Confidential Assignment and Ode to My Father (2014), among many other smash hits.

Also in CJ’s Cannes market lineup is the upcoming fantasy drama The Soul-Mate. From Enemy at the Dead End (2010) director JO Won-hee, the film is one of many upcoming star vehicles for Don LEE (aka MA Dong-seok), who hit the big time recently with TRAIN TO BUSAN (2016) and last year’s surprise hit THE OUTLAWS. KIM Young-kwang (Hot Young Bloods, 2014) plays a police officer who’s soul separates from his body following an accident. He wants to get back to his case and his girlfriend but the only person who can see him is none other than his archenemy, played by LEE.

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