'Train To Busan' remake has fans worked up over new title

Gong Yoo, who led the ensemble cast in 'Train To Busan', has risen in global popularity after appearing in Netflix's recent mega hit 'Squid Game'. Photo: Handout

South Korean zombie movie Train To Busan is being remade as Last Train To New York and fans are not pleased.

The original movie, about passengers on a train who are caught up in a zombie apocalypse, smashed records at the box office in 2016 and its director, Yeon Sang-ho, went on to make a standalone sequel, Peninsula, last year.

Entertainment website Deadline reported on the title of the Hollywood reboot, which got fans riled up on social media over the weekend.

"Stop remaking 'foreign' films. Why can't companies use some of that money to employ people to make really accurate subs and dubs? Unless they're casting Gong Yoo in the lead role, I'm not watching Last Train To New York," one American Twitter user wrote.

Gong, who led the ensemble cast in Train To Busan, has risen in global popularity after appearing in Netflix's recent mega hit Squid Game.

Another fan brought up that Train To Busan is a "beautifully made metaphor for the Korean War from a perspective most people will never see", adding that the role of Busan as a safe haven is very symbolic as it was the only major city never captured by the Northerners.

On the other hand, Last Train To New York appears to be a big-budget remake about "train zombies".

Other Twitter users pointed out that there were no guns in the original movie, which ramped up the intensity of the fights against the zombies, and that it would be a challenge to do the same in the remake set in the United States.

Indonesian director Timo Tjahjanto, known for horror films such as May The Devil Take You (2018), was announced in February to be helming the reboot, which has been in the making for years. The cast and release date have not been announced. – The Straits Times/Asia News Network