Now, first, the predictable.

Kim Ji-Woon's 좋은 놈, 나쁜 놈, 이상한 놈 (The Good, The Bad, and The Weird) had a great opening as expected, given the insanely wide release (650 screens, with digital prints used by various theaters bringing the total to 700 by the weekend). There's around 2,100 screens in Korea, so you can do the math pretty easily. The Midnight screening the film had on July 16 was seen by over 75,000 people, with the totally tally for the opening day touching the 400,000. But let's forget about money, they'll make enough of it.

What we really should be interested in is that Kim Ji-Woon won the attention of Warner Bros., who sent him a script for a Western, and offered him to direct. Kim still hasn't decided anything, because this is not the only International offer on the table. Back in Cannes, he was approached by StudioCanal with an offer to direct a noir thriller starring Hollywood talent, as we previously reported consiting of a remake of Claude Sautet's 1971 heist film Max et les Férrailleurs entitled Max. It's quite likely his next project might take place outside Korean shores then, since the French-US coproduction is slated to start shooting in late 2008. The French thriller will go first, so there could be something of a smaller scale shot in Korea in between, but it looks like there's a very good chance we might get a US western with a distinct kimchi flavor pretty soon.

SOURCES
[Daum News], [Daum News], [Daum News], [Daum News], [Asia Economy]