Busan: Korean Blockbuster ‘Miracle in Cell No. 7’ to Get Indonesian Sequel and Series Adaptation

Miracle in Cell No. 7, an Indonesian remake of the 2013 comedy-drama directed by South Korea's Lee Hwan-kyung, will get a sequel and an animated series adaptation by Indonesia's Falcon Pictures, after the first film achieved major box office success in 2022, scoring fifth in the country's all-time box office rankings and selling 5.8 million movie tickets nationwide.

In a forum held Saturday at Busan's Asia Contents and Film Market, creators behind the original and the remake talked about the unusual collaboration between the two major Asian film companies – Indonesia's Falcon Pictures and South Korea's Contents Panda. The Korean original, which garnered close to 13 million viewers in theaters, did not have a sequel.

"A remake is an efficient way [to ensure] a film's success," says Danny Lee at Contents Panda, a subsidiary of the major Korean distributor NEW. "We already proved in Korea that the story worked."

Contents Panda has seen success of international remakes with its other films. Train to Busan, the blockbuster thriller about a family trapped in a train during a zombie outbreak was remade into Timo Tjahjanto's The Last Train to New York last year. The remake rights of Miracle in Cell No. 7 were also sold to Turkey and the Philippines, and the remakes had modest box office success in those countries. Miracle in Cell No. 7 is also in production for a remake by Spain's Rock and Ruz, starring an award-winning actor Mario Casas from The Invisible Guest.

The partnership between Contents Panda and Falcon is following other Korean films' travels to Southeast Asia for remakes. CJ Entertainment's Sunny, a 2011 drama about a group of female friends who reunite 20 years after high school graduation, was remade by Indonesia's Miles Film. But the main appeal of South Korean content in that region was based on Korean dramas starring celebrity actors.

Miracle in Cell No. 7 follows a mentally disabled father who is falsely accused of murder and sent to prison. The Indonesian adaptation mostly follows the original story with slight variations.

"We localized the content by making the prisoners less dark," said B Naveen, executive producer at Falcon Pictures. "We made it a bit funnier [than the original] and the prisoners in the film were played by big comedians in Indonesia."

Falcon Pictures is also bringing the film into an animation series directed by Daryl Wilson.

"It's very exciting to see the original film coming together as a sequel and an animation spinoff," says Lee. "It's a perfect example of collaboration between great producers."

The sequel of Miracle in Cell No. 7 is expected to open in Indonesian theaters on Christmas. The animation series, which will be presented in eight episodes, will be out nationwide after the film's release.