Netflix Developing English-Language Remake Of South Korean Gangster Flick ‘A Bittersweet Life’ From Writer Kevin McMullin

EXCLUSIVE: After selling his short story “Bomb” to 20th late last year, with Ridley Scott attaching to direct the action thriller, Kevin McMullin has been tapped to script an English-language remake of A Bittersweet Life, the ultra-violent South Korean noir from writer-director Kim Jee-woon, for Netflix and Chernin Entertainment.

McMullin comes to the project following a competitive writer search for adapting this property. Details as to the creative direction for the remake are under wraps. But the original film, released in 2005, starred Lee Byung-hun as Kim Sun-woo, an enforcer and manager for a hotel owned by a powerful crime boss, Kang (Kim Yeong-cheol). When Kang tasks Sun-woo with monitoring his young girlfriend Hee-soo (Shin Min-a), who he suspects of infidelity, Sun-woo finds himself in a moral quandary when he decides not to kill her and her lover, despite catching them together. This act of mercy sets off a devastating chain of events, leading Sun-woo to clash with his former employer in a brutal showdown.

Screening out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim, the gangster flick was distributed by CJ Entertainment. Netflix and Chernin’s is the second attempt to remake the film stateside, following Fox’s attachment of Michael B. Jordan to star and Jennifer Yuh Nelson to direct in 2017, on which we also reported exclusively.

Alex Jackson is overseeing the new take on A Bittersweet Life for Chernin.

McMullin drew a lot of heat last December when he inked a seven-figure deal to adapt Bomb for 20th, with Scott directing and Scott Free producing, following a 10-studio bidding war. Prior to that, he wrote and directed Low Tide, a strong indie drama, starring Jaeden Martell, that was released by theatrically by A24 after premiering in Tribeca.

Getting his start directing national TV commercials after seeing one of his shorts secure a nomination for a Student Academy Award, McMullin also previously adapted the fantasy manga Made in Abyss for It producer Roy Lee and Sony. Featured on the Black List and Blood List, his spec First Harvest has Succession‘s Brian Cox attached to star, with Scott Free aboard to produce, as with Bomb.

McMullin is repped by WME, 2AM, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.