Even as the Netflix release of his long-ready “The Match” languishes thanks to his co-star Yoo Ah-in’s controversy, Lee Byung-hun will return to the disaster movie genre with “Concrete Utopia”, a webtoon adaptation which also sees “Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned” director Uhm Tae-hwa return to filmmaking seven years after the release of the time travel drama.
Synopsis
The world has been reduced to rubble by a massive earthquake.
While no one knows for sure how far the ruins stretch, or what the cause of the earthquake may be, in the heart of Seoul there is only one apartment building left standing. It is called Hwang Gung Apartments.
As time passes, outsiders start coming in to Hwang Gung Apartments trying to escape the extreme cold. Before long, the apartment residents are unable to cope with the increasing numbers. Feeling a threat to their very survival, the residents enact a special measure.
Lee Byung-hun plays Yeong-tak, the de facto leader of the survivors in Hwang Gung Apartments. Joining him is Park Seo-joon as Min-sung, an ex-public officer who Yeong-tak recruits to help him and Park Bo-young as Myeong-hwa, Min-sung’s wife and a nurse who takes care of the injured. Park Ji-hu, the breakout star of “House of Hummingbird”, and Kim Sun-young round up the cast.
“Concrete Utopia” has already been expanded into a franchise, with a sequel in the same world starring Ma Dong-seok and a tv series follow-up both already greenlit before the first film’s release, which is now confirmed to be in August, 2023.