Director Shim Hyung-rae. [Herald DB]
Director Shim Hyung-rae. [Herald DB]

Director Shim Hyung-rae says he has finished production on "D-War 2" and plans to release it worldwide, as the original film enjoys a surprise resurgence on Netflix nearly two decades after its debut.

Speaking on his YouTube channel Tuesday, Shim said "D-War 2" would arrive in two years and that production had wrapped. "Please show it a lot of love," he said. "Production on 'D-War 2' is all done. A game will come out alongside it."

Shim also outlined global distribution plans, saying a major international distributor — not a Korean company — would handle a simultaneous worldwide release. He declined to name the distributor.

"D-War," released in 2007, is a science-fiction monster film that Shim wrote, directed and produced. A large-scale blockbuster drawing on the Korean folk legend of the imugi — a serpentine creature — it was a box-office hit domestically at the time, though critics and audiences were divided over its quality.

Nineteen years on, the film is finding a new audience abroad. On Netflix, it climbed as high as No. 2 on film charts in major European countries including France, Germany and Italy, and broke into the upper ranks of the platform's global movie rankings.

However, it remains unclear exactly what Shim means when he says production is "finished." In a phone interview with Yonhap on Friday, he said the screenplay and investment work were complete and that casting was underway.


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