The Train To Busan remake lands action-horror director Timo Tjahjanto

It’s been more than four years since Hollywood announced its intent to remake Train To Busan, Yeon Sang-ho’s hit 2016 South Korean zombie romp. That’s a long time for a project—especially one with as much horror movie buzz around it as Busan—to go without a director, but the blood is apparently ready to flow: Deadline reports that up-and-coming horror director Timo Tjahjanto has now signed on to remake Yeon’s carnage-heavy film.

If Tjahjanto’s name is familiar to you, it’s likely from violence-forward flicks like Headshot, Killers, or The Night Comes For Us, often made with long-time partner Kimo Stamboel as “The Mo Brothers.” The Indonesian director has also lent his talents to a number of horror anthologies, including The ABCs Of Death and V/H/S 2, where he helmed the cult-heavy “Safe Haven” sequence. (Meanwhile, his first major film, Macabre, holds the distinction of being the first film ever to be banned in Malaysia for “excessive violence.”)

The Train To Busan remake—which will, like the original, presumably center on a commuter train that becomes overrun with the undead in the opening hours of a zombie apocalypse—doesn’t currently have any stars attached as of yet, but it certainly has something of a blood-soaked legacy to live up to. Yeon’s original film was praised both for its claustrophobic action, and for its willingness to mine unease out of class conflict and interpersonal drama. The new one, meanwhile, is being produced by James Wan through his Atomic Monster production company, and is hoped to spawn a franchise for New Line. (The original South Korean film spawned one sequel, Peninsula, which came out in 2020.)