Wednesday, January 28, 2015

News: Lotte Picks up TERMINATOR, Still No Release for MEMORIES OF THE SWORD


By Pierce Conran

In an unusual move, Paramount announced earlier this month that their summer tentpole Terminator: Genisys would not be distributed by their usual partner CJ Entertainment in Korea. That position has now been filled by Lotte Entertainment, which will release the film in July.

The change in distributor isn't exactly a big piece of news, unless you're one of the interested parties, but there was speculation that it might have had something to do with Lee Byung-hun, who stars in the blockbuster, and his current scandal. Lee is also set to appear in this year's Lotte period epic Memories of the Sword (co-starring Jeon Do-yeon and Kim Go-eun), which has yet to fix a release date. Lotte has now said that that film will not be released until after Terminator, which is very late, considering that it wrapped in February 2014.

Mired in a sex and blackmail scandal, Lee's image has taken an enormous hit in Korea and it is unclear when Lotte will feel confident enough to release their expensive period production. Another film of his with an unclear fate is the Showbox thriller Inside Men.


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