American TRAIN TO BUSAN Remake Still “A Passion Project”, Says James Wan

It's been a while since we heard anything about Last Train to New York, the planned Train to Busan remake from Warner Bros., but producer James Wan says the project is still very “a passion project of ours”, even if progress is slow moving.

First announced back in 2018, the American remake of South Korean zombie horror Train to Busan was reportedly being directed by V/H/S and May the Devil Take You director Timo Tjahjanto, with New Line Cinema, Wan's Atomic Monster and Coin Operated announced as co-producing partners. The Nun and Until Dawn writer Gary Dauberman is penning the script, previously revealing to Entertainment Weekly that he was “being very careful how we translate it over here”, with the one main rule being “don't fuck it up!”

Originally scheduled for an April 21, 2023 release, Last Train to New York was removed by Warner Bros. from the calendar and replaced by Lee Cronin's Evil Dead Rise. Since then, updates have been few and far between. 

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, horror master Wan explains that Last Train to New York is actually more of a spinoff than a traditional remake, while also detailing that he too doesn't know a huge amount of the fate of the project.

“Creatively, it takes place in the same world as Train to Busan […] It's happening epidemically around the world. So if Train to Busan is this particular slice of the story in South Korea, we want Train to New York to be the one set in America. Everything about it is really exciting.  I hope that could get off the ground eventually. Got to be honest with you, I'm not quite sure where it sits right now.”

Yeon Sang-ho's original film starred Squid Game‘s Gong Yoo, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Su-an and Jung Yu-mi as survivors of a zombie apocalypse trapped aboard a high speed KTX train from Seoul to Busan. Thanks to its mix of genuinely terrifying and heartbreaking scenes, the film quickly went on to become a fan favorite among horror fans.