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| Diane Min, head of format sales at CJ ENM, from left, Studio Dragon Global Division head Hyun Park and Skydance Television President Bill Bost take part in a session at the Broadcast Worldwide 2021 trade fair, held from Sept. 6 to 10. Courtesy of KOCCA |
By Lee Gyu-lee
The growing popularity and interest in K-drama led Studio Dragon, a prominent Korean drama production company under CJ ENM, to sign a strategic partnership last year with the U.S. production company Skydance.
Since then, the two studios have been working on several projects, such as a U.S adaptation of Studio Dragon's hit series "Hotel Del Luna" and the original U.S series "The Big Door Prize" for Apple TV+.
During a session at this year's Broadcast Worldwide trade show, held from Sept. 6 to 10, Studio Dragon's global division head Hyun Park and Skydance Television President Bill Bost talked about the journey of bringing K-dramas into the U.S market.
Bost, who was new to K-dramas before the partnership, explained the strengths of the K-drama format that would speak to U.S. audiences, recalling his exposure to them.
"It was such a pure delight and roller coaster ride to do a deep dive on (K-dramas') fantastic stories that give you a complete wheel of joy, hope, terror, humor and sci-fi. It was such joy to dive into the depth and complexity of the title," he said.
"Diversity of storytelling is very specific and unique (for K-drama formats). It makes you lean in. For me, the strength in K-drama is that you have such complexity and such twists and turns that it keeps the audiences completely engaged."
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| A scene from the K-drama "Hotel Del Luna," which will be adapted into a U.S. remake / Courtesy of tvN |
Park noted that the partnership has opened the door for the Korean production company to showcase its intellectual property, as Korean entertainment has gained a higher profile following the Oscar-winning film "Parasite."
"We were thrilled when Parasite won four Oscars and it put Korean content, its creators and CJ ENM on a big brilliant spotlight… but soon realized that Oscars does not translate directly into Korean dramas and Korean movies becoming global overnight," he said. "There's so much more work to be done. And it did give us an opening to try to showcase the type of intellectual property that we have and the type of creators we have."
Bost explained how he approached adapting K-dramas to resonate with U.S audiences and buyers.
"At the end of the day, we want to put out premium, commercial entertainment that has something to say and has some connecting point for all of us to align with the story. And I think the universal cut through all of this is the depth of humanity of K-dramas, which is a place we have to hook our buyers and audiences," he said.
"(With the complexity of K-dramas,) the trick is to find a way to distill that down into a U.S. market where you are telling the same story that honors the spirit and original intention, but doing it within 8 to 10 episodes instead of 16. And we have to make sure to lay the track for multiple seasons, which is a key component for most U.S.-based storytelling."
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| Hyun Park speaks during the session. Courtesy of KOCCA |
Learning to adapt to a completely different process in the U.S., from development to production, through the partnership, Park expressed what it means to make its first U.S. series with "The Big Door Prize."
"When we got the script for The Big Door Prize, something clicked a bit different. In the sense that as we're opening into the U.S. market, we were very conscious of the CJ brand, Studio Dragon brand, and of what kind of message and stories we want to tell at this initial stage," he said.
"And what we loved about the script is that when you take the story in any city in the world, every iteration will be different. And we thought that was a great universal, global concept. If we were to come up with a Korean version it would be completely different culturally … That's what really attracted us to the show."
Park added that K-dramas have been developing with the advent of over-the-top platforms, and are in the process of taking the next leap forward into the global market by taking Korean creators, directors and writers to create shows overseas.
"We're in the process of trying to get that second stage with our adaptation… the evolution will be 'let's try to have our creators make shows in the U.S. and be treated the same as the mainstream of creative talent," he said. "It's not easy because there are cultural barriers and language barriers, but there's a demand for this new type of storytelling, and different points of view. And I think we have such a good creative hub of content that translating this into the U.S., and onto an original show, is a matter of process."
