City Hunter comes to U.S. television (maybe)

by javabeans

This seems a bit… odd. Jung Woo-sung (The Good, The Bad, The Weird) has been cast in a Korean-Japanese co-production… of an adaptation a Japanese manga… in a multi-season drama series… for his American television debut. (Nothing wrong with the concept, of course, but talk about multiple layers of risk!)

The series is City Hunter, which I vaguely remember seeing (as an anime) back in Ye Olde Nineties. I remember almost nothing about the actual series, but I do seem to recall it being a little blue — although perhaps racy content is not a big deal in today’s TV climate. The description, from Wikipedia:

The series follows the exploits of Ryo Saeba, a “sweeper” who works to rid Tokyo of crime, and Kaori Makimura, a tomboyish girl who manages Ryo’s business affairs. Their “City Hunter” business is an underground jack-of-all-trades operation, contacted by writing the letters “XYZ” on a blackboard at Shinjuku Station.

Jung takes the lead as Ryo Saeba, who is basically a pervy P.I. (Kaori is not yet cast.) The series is being planned for four seasons — a Seoul version, Tokyo version, New York version, and Paris version — each with its own hero. Shooting is scheduled to begin next year.

I’m still not quite clear on how this is going to work. U.S. television shows do not green-light multiple seasons in advance (shows are lucky if they even make it through their first season intact). While the production team is looking to broadcast on Fox Television (which suggests they have some kind of relationship or preliminary deal there), let’s just keep in mind that the U.S. broadcast machine is vastly different from the Korean one, and a series that is cast and shot does not always make it to air.

Via Hankook Ilbo

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