Ryoo heads for Berlin

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Production News

Production will begin next week (1 May) on The Berlin File 베를린, the spy drama project by iconic South Korean director RYOO Seung-wan 류승완 | 柳昇完 (pictured).

Formerly known as The Berlin File, the $9 million picture will do two weeks of location shooting in the German capital, before returning to complete production in Korea.

The German elements are provided by Film Base, the production and services company that previously co-produced Don 2 (2011), featuring another totem of Asian cinema Shah Rukh KHAN. Unlike Don 2, In Berlin has not accessed German funding or been structured as a co-production with Germany.

It remains a wholly-Korean financed and produced production, produced by Filmmaker R&K 외유내강, backed by CJ E&M Pictures.

Film Base boss Mathias Schwerbrock says that the shoot will involve a 15-person German crew and German actor Thomas Tieme (The Lives of Others), but the majority of production elements and talent will be Korean.

Presented last October at Busan's Asian Project Market, the film was pitched as a story involving a North Korean secret agent who is framed for a crime he did not commit, while also being in danger of losing his wife and unborn child. Schwerbrock pitches the film as a drama, rather than an action film.

Ryoo previously directed Die Bad 죽거나 혹은 나쁘거나 (2000), No Blood No Tears 피도 눈물도 없이 (2002), Arahan: Urban Martial Arts Action 아라한 (2004), Crying Fist 주먹이 운다 (2005), The City of Violence 짝패 (2006), Dachimawa Lee 다찌마와 리 − 악인이여 지옥행 급행열차를 타라 (2008) and The Unjust 부당거래 (2010).

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