Yeon Sang-ho’s ‘Colony’ Sells to 20+ Territories Before Cannes

Ten years after Train to Busan turned Yeon Sang-ho into one of Korean cinema’s most globally recognized directors, he’s back in the zombie genre — and the world is already buying in. Korean studio Showbox announced Tuesday that Colony has landed distribution deals across more than 20 international territories ahead of its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this Friday, May 15.

The deals span nearly every major market on the planet. Well Go USA takes North America, StudioCanal acquires the U.K., Gaga Corporation handles Japan, ARP Sélection covers France, and Plaion Pictures picks up Germany and Italy. K-Movie Entertainment UK secures Australia and New Zealand, BF Distribution covers Latin America, Mis Label handles Scandinavia, Energia takes Spain, and The World Pictures covers the CIS and Baltics. In Asia, Edko Films takes Hong Kong, MovieCloud secures Taiwan, PT Primacinema Multimedia covers Indonesia, Pioneer Films handles the Philippines, Sahamongkolfilm International takes Thailand, Purple Plan covers broader Southeast Asia, and Multivision Multimedia acquires India. Media4Fun covers Poland, Mars handles Turkey, and Izagur Media picks up Mongolia.

That’s a lot of territory — and more deals are expected to close as Marché du Film gets underway at Cannes.

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What Colony Is About

Gianna Jun — best known internationally for Kingdom: Ashin of the North and the classic thriller Assassination — leads the film as Se-jeong, a biotechnology professor attending an industry conference when a rapidly mutating virus is released. The venue descends into chaos as the infected begin to transform, authorities seal the building, and the survivors are left to fight their way through a mounting, shape-shifting threat.

Alongside Jun, the ensemble includes Koo Kyo-hwan (Escape, Netflix’s Parasyte: The Grey), Ji Chang-wook (The Worst of Evil), Shin Hyun-been (Reborn Rich), Kim Shin-rock (Hellbound, Sweet Home), and Go Soo (The Fortress). Yeon and the full principal cast will walk the red carpet for the Cannes premiere. Yeon co-wrote the screenplay with frequent collaborator Choi Gyu-seok.

The film is presented by Showbox and produced by Wowpoint and Smilegate in association with Midnight Studio. Its reported production budget sits at around $12 million — modest compared to Hollywood tentpole territory, but on the higher end for a Korean genre feature.

A Homecoming at Cannes Midnight

Colony will screen at the Palais on Friday in the Midnight Screenings section, out of competition. For Yeon, that’s a deeply familiar slot. Train to Busan debuted in the exact same strand in 2016 — and that premiere was the launchpad for what became a global phenomenon, transforming Korean zombie cinema’s international profile almost overnight.

Yeon started his career as an animator, crafting dark allegorical films like The King of Pigs (2011) and The Fake (2013) before making the leap to live action. When Train to Busan and its animated companion piece Seoul Station both arrived in 2016, the response was seismic. The live-action sequel Peninsula followed in 2020, and then came Hellbound — the Netflix supernatural series that launched in November 2021 and became the platform’s most-watched show within 24 hours of release.

Colony opens in South Korea on May 21. Well Go USA is targeting a late-August theatrical release in North America.