Well Go USA Entertainment has announced that Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula will hit U.S. theaters on August 21. The film, a sequel to the 2016 Korean zombie movie Train to Busan. The film has opened in Asia already, and its success in some markets has served as encouragement to reopen theaters in Chinese markets. Well Go USA, who also distribute the IP Man franchise, are bringing the film to North America in late August, shortly after many U.S. theater chains are presently planning to reopen. It likely means that there will be a VOD release not long after that.
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Directed by Yeon Sang-Ho, the film features a cast that includes Gang Dong-won and Lee Jung-hyun. Some fans had wondered how much the coronavirus pandemic would impact the film’s release, especially considering that the original Train to Busan viewed the zombie apocalypse through the lens of a viral outbreak.
“(It’s) in the same universe, but it doesn’t continue the story and has different characters,” Sang-ho recently told Screen Daily. “Government authority has been decimated after the zombie outbreak in Korea, and there is nothing left except the geographical traits of the location – which is why the film is called Peninsula.”
Yeon’s comments on the film have biased toward some broad world-building, which presumably sets up more potential films that don’t necessarily have to take place in exactly the same place or with the exact same characters. He cited films like Land of the Dead or Mad Max: Fury Road as inspiration.
“The idea of being able to build a post-apocalyptic world – which would be sort of savage but also in a way like ancient times, or like ruined modern times, with rules of its own – was interesting to me,” the filmmaker added. “There could be many stories that could keep coming out of that world. Destroyed, isolated, extreme, but with hope of escape and humanism, and the way world powers would look at this place. There could be a lot of material with a lot of greater significance.”
Four years after South Korea’s total decimation in Train to Busan, the zombie thriller that captivated audiences worldwide, acclaimed director Yeon Sang-ho brings us Peninsula, the next nail-biting chapter in his post-apocalyptic world. Jung-seok, a soldier who previously escaped the diseased wasteland, relives the horror when assigned to a covert operation with two simple objectives: retrieve and survive. When his team unexpectedly stumbles upon survivors, their lives will depend on whether the best—or worst—of human nature prevails in the direst of circumstances.
