The American remake of "Good Doctor" has found a home on the CBS television network. It's the first time that a major U.S. broadcaster has taken on the challenge on adapting a k-drama for a U.S. audience.
The adaptation will be a co-production of CBS Studios, 3AD and Entermedia. 3AD is the newly launched company founded by Korean-American actor Daniel Dae Kim. The actor, who appeared in "Lost" and "Hawaii Five-O," wanted to bring "Good Doctor" to American audiences.
Kim told the Hollywood Reporter that he thinks the time is right for k-dramas to cross over.
"It's all about the timing and confluence of different events," Kim told The Hollywood Reporter. "K-pop is bigger than ever, there is awareness in the U.S. of an international market, there is interest in intellectual property such as basing TV and film on books and foreign content. There is also this emergence of Korean directors breaking into the U.S., and there's people like me with an interest in both Korean and American TV."
Malaysian born Adele Kim will serve as the writer on this project. She previously worked on the TV shows "Star Crossed," "Private Practice," "One Tree Hill" and Reign." She and Kim are the executive producers on this project and they will work together with CBS Studios and Entermedia, a U.S.-based company founded by Sebastian Lee and David Kim.
The original drama starred Joo Won as Park Shi On, a brilliant doctor whose ability to heal was hampered by his Asperger's syndrome. Although he was a genius diagnostician and often had a remarkable bedside manner, his inability to understand social norms, made hospital life difficult for him.
Joo Won used hunched over shuffling body language to create a convincing character with no sense of social conventions.
Moon Chae Won played the doctor who befriends and encourages him, eventually falling in love with him despite his inability to properly process social interactions.
The k-drama remake will be set in Boston at a teaching hospital.
According to KBS, the producers are aiming for a 2015 time slot. It is not known whether the remake will be a one-season drama, as k-dramas usually are, or it will be formatted for possible successive seasons, as American series usually are.
It's not the only k-drama currently being considered for an American adaptation. Korean-American actress Yunjin Kim, who played Daniel Dae Kim's wife on "Lost," also has a drama she wants to remake as producer.
She is pitching a remake of the drama "Nine: Nine Time Travels," which starred Lee Jin Wook. It's a fantasy drama about a man who travels back in time trying to prevent a family tragedy.
Another drama up for an American remake is "Reply 1997," which is now in development and may air on Fox TV.
