Yoon Je-kyun to direct Korea-China production ‘Kungfu Robot’

Director Yoon Je-kyun (47), who directed "Haeundae" and "Ode to My Father," will direct "Kungfu Robot," a movie to be jointly produced by Korea and China, as his next project.

The blueprint of "Kungfu Robot" was made public at the Presentation on CJ E&M Korea-China Joint Movie Lineup, which took place at the Chinese Arts Palace in Shanghai at the Shanghai International Film Festival on Monday afternoon. ‘Kungfu Robot’ is a sci-fi comedy, which addresses an episode where a cleaning robot accidently comes to learn kungfu in a setting in the near future. Currently, the scenario is being prepared, and filming will start at the end of this year to aim for release in 2017 winter.

The movie will be a joint production by Wanda Pitchers, a subsidiary of Wanda Group in China, and Dexter Studio and CJ E&M in Korea. “I hope that ‘Kungfu Robot’ will become work that can earn sympathy from China, Korea and the whole world,” Yoon said.

At the preview session on Monday, plans to produce Chinese remakes of the Korean movies "Veteran" and "Salut D’Amour," and a plan on simultaneous release in Korea and China of "Battleship Island" (Gunhamdo), the next movie by director Ryu Seung-wan set to be released in 2017, were also presented.

For the Chinese remake of "Veteran," Sun Honglei, China’s "national actor," will play the character of detective Seo Do-cheol, which was performed by actor Hwang Jung-min in the Korean edition. The Chinese edition of "Salut D’Amour“ will be produced and directed by Eric Tsang who is widely known in Korea for his works "Comrades: Almost a Love Story" and "Infernal Affairs."

이새샘기자 iamsam@donga.com