productioninterview
Don Lee, actor and co-founder of Gorilla 8 Productions
Trap door A new door has opened for CJ ENM's 2019 scripted drama Trap, which is being adapted for the international market in a move that shines another light on Korean stories that "look around corners that we don't normally look at in American television". Starlings Television president, Chris Philip, spoke to ContentAsia about the latest Asian title making its way onto the global stage. When L.A.-based indie production house Starlings Television partnered
There are ways to make every show with an independent model,” he
with Korean-American action star Don Lee and his Korean production
adds.
house Gorilla 8 Productions on an English-language international version
Of all the scripted shows in the world Starlings could have chosen to
of CJ ENM's scripted drama Trap, yet another step was taken into a class
adapt, Philip says he chose Trap because "it has all the elements of what
of global filmmaking unafraid of the dark, unencumbered by traditional
we think is trending now", including a compelling central character.
funding or thinking, unconcerned with specific geographies.
“We don't quite know what's going on in the detective's head, we don't
Trap, says Starlings Television president Chris Philip, was the right format at the right time that could be packaged in the right way.
know the investigator's motives. There's a dark past but there's clearly an objective”.
The international version, The Club, stars Lee as a veteran detective
In Trap, he found a "different kind of investigator... a detective with a
investigating a mysterious group of hunters who have attacked a famous
personal agenda and an inner rage that is controlled until it can't be
news anchor and his family while on a camping trip. The detective, who
controlled anymore. He knows in advance of us what he has uncovered
lost his own son in a hit-and-run, finds himself mired in a twisted mystery
but we don't know what he's thinking. That's the beauty of the format”.
orchestrated by an elite and powerful group with disturbing appetites.
The series "really keeps you guessing... it peels the onion slowly". And,
He slowly learns that, in this case, nothing is as it seems and killers are
like many of its fellow Korean dramas, "it looks around corners that we
hiding in plain sight.
don't normally look at in American television... shines a light on things that
The series is being pitched to platforms around the world with Jack
you just don't normally shine a light on".
LoGiudice (Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead, Narcos, House of
Philip, who in the show announcement on 20 April described Korean
Cards) on board as writer/showrunner and Philip, along with Starlings
drama as "delightfully shocking", is betting on robust viewer appetite
Entertainment chief executive Karine Martin, as executive producers.
for the guessing game and says darker serialised drama has found a
Like the model used for Departure (2019), production will go ahead
successful home on global streaming services. “This is not a trend that will
without many of the above-the-line commitments that passed as normal
end anytime soon," he says. “Viewers want to see things they haven't see
in the past, Philip says. “Our plan is to consider options across the globe...
before, and this show delivers that."
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contentasia may 2021