The Point Men_Hwang Jung-min (left) and Hyun Bin

Source: Megabox Plus M

Hwang Jung-min (left) and Hyun Bin

South Korea’s Megabox Plus M has sold The Point Men, director Yim Soon-rye’s anticipated Korean hostage crisis drama, to 14 territories including Japan (Gaga) and Taiwan (MovieCloud).

The latest feature from Yim, who directed 2014 local hit Whistle Blower, stars Hwang Jung-min (The Spy Gone North) and Hyun Bin (Late Autumn) in the true story of a Korean diplomat who is dispatched to Afghanistan when a group of South Korean tourists is taken hostage by the Taliban. When all other measures fail and one hostage is killed, he is forced to team up with a special agent (Hyun) to try and rescue the survivors.

The film, which is in post-production, has also sold to Hong Kong and Macau (Edko Films), Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Vietnam (Encore Films), Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar (Sahamongkol Film), Philippines (Viva Networks), and Mongolia (The Filmbridge).

Investor-distributor Megabox Plus M, which launched its international sales arm in October, is lining up The Point Men as a 2021 tentpole release in Korea.

The company says it has also been fielding inquiries from Chinese buyers following encouraging recent signals that a thaw in China’s unofficial freeze on Korean cultural products could be coming soon.