K-dramas Crash Landing On You and Vincenzo to be remade in US with South Korean collaborations

SEOUL - Popular K-dramas Crash Landing On You (2019 to 2020) and Vincenzo (2021) are in a league of their own amidst the flurry of international remakes of hit South Korean shows.

Remaking a series typically involves selling the remake rights to an overseas studio, which then recreates the series without the involvement of the original creators.

However, in the case of Crash Landing On You and Vincenzo, Seoul-based Studio Dragon, the original creator of the shows, did not sell the remake rights to American studios. Rather, it is collaborating with American counterparts to remake the series from their very foundations.

Crash Landing On You starred South Korean actor Hyun Bin and actress Son Ye-jin, playing on-screen lovers

who went on to tie the knot in real life,

while Vincenzo starred South Korean actor Song Joong-ki as the titular character.

Collaborations with overseas studios in producing content from scratch is rare, as numerous intellectual property rights issues and on-set regulations often complicate the filming process.

But the advantage lies in profitability, Studio Dragon added.

“When we produce a title, streaming platforms that purchase the content provide a percentage of the production costs as profits. Consequently, higher production costs lead to greater profitability.

“Production costs for US series are much higher than production costs for K-dramas. In this regard, producing a series together with a US studio reaps great profits. For us, filming multiple episodes of a K-drama can be equally profitable as producing a single episode of a US series.”

The decision to partner with an overseas production studio was also driven by the saturated content market in South Korea, Studio Dragon added.

“We want to garner an international audience. Exporting Korean dramas is one method, but we found creating and promoting them locally is often more effective.”

Studio Dragon’s plan going forward involves numerous ventures in collaboration with US studios. South Korean novel The Plotters (2010) will be co-produced in the US with Universal International Studios Productions.

“We are currently creating one a year - we aim to increase the number to three or four as the years go by,” said an official from Studio Dragon. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK