Current South Korean hit The Attorney is set to hit North American theatres Feb 7.

Local distributor Next Entertainment World (N.E.W.) and sales agent Finecut officially announced the deal with Well Go USA.

Well Go president Doris Pfardrescher said, “The Attorney is an amazing story about courage, perseverance and fighting for human rights, and we are extremely proud to be associated with it. Overcoming insurmountable odds is infectious, and we’re anxious to be able to share this film with North American audiences.”

Set during Korea’s 1980s military dictatorship, the film is based on late president Roh Moo-hyun’s early days as a lawyer in Busan. Top star Song Kang-ho plays the lead.

The film has been clocking up ticket sales at a rapid pace since its Dec 18 release and has to date gone over 8.1 million admissions.

With its political significance in a time of heightened divisions in Korea, The Attorney has been the focus of different unsubstantiated rumours including one alleging its North American release was somehow being interfered with by right-wing conservatives. N.E.W.’s official Twitter account yesterday hastened to dispel such rumours by mentioning release details ahead of time.

Well Go plans to release the film on around 25 screens in major North American cities such as Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Seattle, Toronto and Vancouver.

The company previously acquired gangster thriller New World from Finecut amongst other Korean films such as Showbox’s current espionage hit The Suspect.