First Look at the TRAIN TO BUSAN Sequel PENINSULA Which Will Take Things to a Whole New Level
Thanks to Screen Daily, we have our first look at the upcoming Train To Busan follow-up film, Peninsula. The director of the film, Yeon Sang-ho, also talked about the movie and teased what we can expect. One thing he makes very clear is that this next film is going to be bigger and better than the first one.
When talking about the story, Yeon explained:
“It takes place four years after Train To Busan, in the same universe, but it doesn’t continue the story and has different characters. Government authority has been decimated after the zombie outbreak in Korea, and there is nothing left except the geographical traits of the location – which is why the film is called Peninsula.”
The new movie stars Gang Dong-won, who plays Jung-seok, “a former soldier who manages to escape from the Korean peninsula – a zombie-infested wasteland turned into a ghetto by other nations trying to stop the spread of the virus. Sent back with a crew on a mission to retrieve something, he goes in through the port of Incheon to reach Seoul and comes under attack, discovering there are more non-infected survivors left on the peninsula.”
Peninsula also has almost double the budget of the original film, and at $16 million, the director says that Peninsula will make the Train to Busan look like an independent film.
“The scale of Peninsula can’t compare to Train To Busan, it makes it look like an independent film. Train To Busan was a high-concept film shot in narrow spaces whereas Peninsula has a much wider scope of movement.”
The filmmaker goes on to admit that he was initially reluctant to make the film, but explains that “the idea of being able to build a post-apocalyptic world – which would be sort of savage but also in a way like ancient times, or like ruined modern times, with rules of its own – was interesting to me.” He then added:
”There could be many stories that could keep coming out of that world. Destroyed, isolated, extreme, but with hope of escape and humanism, and the way world powers would look at this place. There could be a lot of material with a lot of greater significance.”
So, there could be even more films coming that are set in this post-apocalyptic zombie-filled universe. Yeon says the next film he produces could tell the story of how the mysterious zombie virus started:
“I’ve thought about dealing with that question in another film, which probably I won’t direct myself. There are a lot of interesting questions you could answer, issue by issue, with other films.”
If you haven’t watched Train of Busan yet, you’ve got to check it out! It’s a great film, and it’s great to see that more stories are being planned for the universe it set up.