Netflix to Release Time to Hunt Movie Previously Barred by Court Injuction

A Netflix original film called Time to Hunt, a Korean crime thriller, was originally supposed to make its debut on the streaming service earlier this month. Unfortunately, a last minute court injunction before its streaming premiere caused it to be pulled. International sales rep Contents Panda filed the injunction against the Little Big Pictures production company, saying that it still had a vaild contract to distribute the film in at least 30 different territories from the initial deal before Netflix got a hold of it. A court in Seoul granted the motion and delayed the release, but everything has now been cleared up.

This week, Little Big Pictures and Contents Panda reached an agreement that will allow Time to Hunt to be distributed on Netflix. The streaming service has yet to set a new premiere date for the film, but it now has the freedom to debut it at whatever time is chosen.

Time to Hunt is written and directed by Sung-hyun Yoon, and premiered earlier this year at the Berlinale International Film Festival. The film is set in a near future and follows a group of young people who are forced into a life of crime after Korea is hit with a financial crisis.

"First of all, we are deeply sorry to those who have been interested in Time To Hunt. As the distributor of the film, we feel sorry and responsible for the confusion being caused," Little Big Pictures wrote in a statement. "We thought the worldwide streaming premiere over 190 countries on Netflix could be a good way to promote Korean films, production staff, directors and actors to the world. However, due to the impractical progress, we unilaterally sent a notice of termination while ignoring the achievement of Contents Panda, the world sales agent, who highly contributed in world sales over a year, and we received the restraining order from the court. We respect the court's decision and ask for an apology from Contents Panda."

"Since signing an overseas sales contract with Little Big Pictures in January last year, we have faithfully fulfilled our responsibilities to promote the film to the world," said Contents Panda. "When the common sense procedure was ignored and the contract was terminated, we confirmed our legitimate rights and obligations with the court, in order to prevent our trust with overseas buyers who signed the contract believing in the legitimate rights of Content Panda and to protect ourselves from being undermined by speculation based on false information. Since then, after renegotiating with overseas buyers, we have reached an agreement with Little Big Pictures to withdraw injunction and to assure that there is no problem to release Time To Hunt through Netflix."

Time to Hunt does not have a premiere date at this time.