SLL is riding high on the success of its recent projects and is preparing to release a slate of new shows in the second half of the year.
The company’s recent box office success, “The Roundup: No Way Out,” is the only local film this year to sell more than 10 million tickets. In the TV production division, SLL is breathing a sigh of relief with the successes of “Doctor Cha” and “The Good Bad Mother,” shows which have achieved huge local ratings and placed in Netflix’s Global non-English Top 10 charts.
The company is now looking to keep things fresh and original, while producing the high volumes of Korean content demanded by clients such as Netflix, Prime Video, and TVing. At an event on Tuesday, executives unveiled a slate of 15 shows that it will deliver in the second half of this year.
These include “Strong Woman Kang Nam Soon,” a spin-off from the 2017 drama “Strong Girl Bong Soon,” “Sing Again 3” and “The Biography of Evil” for various local broadcasters. For streaming clients, the second half will hold “Ballerina” a movie being produced by its Climax Studios subsidiary for Netflix; a second season of “D.P.”; “Daily Dose of Sunshine” by Film Monster for Netflix; “The Crime Scene Returns” through Studio Slam for TVing; the SLL-branded “Death’s Game,” which is split between TVing in Korea and Prime Video in other territories; and wiip’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty 2” for Prime Video.
Upcoming theatrical films include Kim Jee-woon’s “Cobweb,” which Anthology Studios launched out of competition in May at the Cannes festival, and the September-dated Kang Je-gyu-directed tear-jerker “1947 Boston” from its B.A. Entertainment unit.
The company said that it operates a twin track strategy of working with established writers and directors, while also bringing on new creative talent. “There is a tension between increased production volumes and maintaining high quality, but that is a good reason to bring on new talent,” Park Joon Suh, head of production, told Variety. “Also, we understand that all genres and nationalities of content go in cycles, and rise and fall in audience popularity over time. We’ve seen this with Marvel, for instance. The best response to that is to be prepared. And there too we see working with new talent as an investment in the future.”
Park said that relations with Wiip were very healthy and involve two-way cooperation between the U.S. and Korean business units. Development activities, however, have been temporarily suspended in response to the Hollywood writers’ strike.
