'The Man From Nowhere' Remake Will Be A 'John Wick' Reunion
John Wick director Chad Stahelski and writer Derek Kolstad are re-teaming for more action. Stahelski will produce and Kolstad will write a remake of The Man from Nowhere, inspired by the 2010 South Korean action film which is, according to /Film managing editor Jacob Hall, pretty much "120 minutes of knife fights." Sign me up.
The Man From Nowhere
Deadline has the scoop on The Man From Nowhere remake, which will be produced by Chad Stahelski and written by Derek Kolstad. The project is set-up at New Line Cinema, and a search for a director is in progress. The original film, released in 2010, followed "A quiet pawnshop keeper with a violent past" who "takes on a drug-and-organ trafficking ring in hope of saving the child who is his only friend." Here's a longer, more detailed synopsis:
A retired special agent forges an unlikely bond with his neglected young neighbor, and vows to bring the girl back home safely after she's kidnapped by violent criminals. When Tae-Shik hung up his guns to open a small pawn shop, he also shut himself off from the world. Tae-Shik prefers to live in solitude, yet he still takes a liking to his precocious neighbor So-mi, whose mother pay her little attention. When So-Mi's mother crosses a local gang of criminals who respond by kidnapping the desperate mother and daughter, Tae-Shik realizes that he may be their only hope of making it out of the situation alive. After entering into a tenuous agreement with the local mob, Tae-Shik becomes the target of an intense police manhunt and finds himself besieged on all sides. Now the closer Tae-Shik gets to So-Mi and her mother, the more his dark past finally begins coming into focus
The original was the highest-grossing film in South Korea when it was released, making $42 million. It's currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S., which is where I intend to check it out since I've yet to see it. Anytime there's an American remake of a foreign language film, especially one released so recently, there's a knee-jerk reaction to declare it unnecessary.
However, after John Wick, I'm willing to give Stahelski and Kolstad the benefit of the doubt. And the people involved with this project are said to be "very high on the script that Kolstad just delivered," so make of that what you will. Stahelski and his 87Eleven Entertainment are also developing a reboot of Highlander at Lionsgate, with Stahelski set to direct, and the John Wick spin-off Ballerina with Len Wiseman directing. There's also John Wick 4 in the works, and Stahelski worked on the stunts for the upcoming The Matrix 4.