Yet another Michael Mann (“Ferrari”) upcoming feature film project has surfaced thanks to a new report from Variety. The outlet has revealed that the filmmaker aims to continue working within the crime thriller genre and will now help develop a remake of the 2015 South Korean film “Veteran” alongside Korea’s CJ ENM. Noteworthy that the report isn’t entirely sure if Mann will ultimately direct or simply become the project’s producer and writer, as he’s said to be working on the remake’s script.

Ryoo Seung-wan‘s original film (that skewed within the action comedy realm) is described via a synopsis as “A maverick detective’s crime-fighting skills are tested when he targets the ruthless heir to a corrupt corporation and crime syndicate.” It’s a bit unclear when this Western version of “Veteran” will actually move forward as it sounds like they’re only in the development stage and things had stalled due to the WGA strike that recently has been resolved.

We’ll be curious to see if Mann and his studio partners attempt to recast with white actors or decide to push for an Asian-American cast, which could help potentially connect the film’s story/setting between South Korea and the Korean community in the United States.

Mann is looking to turn his novel “Heat 2,” which he co-wrote with Meg Gardiner as a follow-up to his iconic cops-and-robbers movie “Heat” from 1995, into his next feature film. With the presumption that his “Ferrari” lead Adam Driver might be landing a lead role in it. The film would cover the events prior to and after the original film, allowing for the recasting of multiple parts with new actors given the ages of the folks who starred in “Heat” along with how the story fluxes between different time periods.

This trend of Hollywood remaking films from Asian cinema is nothing new there are plans to do an English remake of Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning class satire “Parasite,” a long-gestating Western take of the Korean zombie thriller “Train To Busan,” and director Martin Scorsese reworked the Hong Kong crime thriller “Infernal Affairs” as the Boston-set pic “The Departed.” One of the more recent projects that Mann has worked on was the HBO Max series “Toyko Vice” which spent a good chunk of time shooting on location in Japan.

You can check out the trailer for “Veteran” below.

SOURCE: VARIETY