South Korean prodco picks up Sweden’s Honour, Love Me for local adaptation

Viaplay original thriller Honour

BCWW: Two Swedish drama formats have been picked up for local remakes in South Korea, something of a rarity in a country these days more used to exporting formats.

Nordic distributor Eccho Rights, until recently owned by South Korean cable company CJ ENM, has licensed format rights for legal thriller Honour and romantic drama-comedy Love Me to Seoul-based production company How Pictures. The news was announced here at the BCWW conference in Seoul.

Honour is a Viaplay original, produced by Bigster, that has so far been sold into 60 countries and has a third season launching next month. Love Me is also a Viaplay original, produced by Warner Bros International Television Production Sverige.

No broadcasters or streamers are yet attached to these planned Korean remakes but the deals come as not only exports of Korean formats are rising but imports of international content and formats are falling.

Data from Korean cultural agency Kocca shows exports of K-content jumped 28.5% to US$693m between 2019 and 2020, the latest year for its export data, and content imports into South Korea tumbled a whopping 37.5% to US$61m over the same period.

Nevertheless, the country has had success with scripted adaptations over the years, including UK drama Doctor Foster, remade as The World of the Married by JTBC, while Life on Mars was adapted by OCN and US drama Criminal Minds was remade by TVN. Netflix has also remade Entourage, Suits, Designated Survivor and Money Heist for the Korean market.

“South Korean producers are increasingly open to working with European scripts and these are two of the most interesting coming from Sweden right now,” said Deborah Youn, head of Asian business at Eccho Rights, now majority owned by Germany’s Night Train Media.

“With its female-driven story and contemporary themes, Honour is perfect for a remake in any territory, while Love Me is a thoroughly relatable romance that has already enjoyed success as a scripted adaptation.”