Ever since the Korean zombie horror film Train to Busan proved to be a huge hit with audiences across the world in 2016, there has been talk of an American remake. Progress on the remake seemed to be picking up steam last December when the film got a title, The Last Train to New York, and a release date, April 21, 2023. However, today it has been announced that Warner Bros has removed the film from their release schedule.
In 2016, Train to Busan was a huge hit for horror film fans across the globe. The film follows a young father who boards a train with his daughter, unaware that a zombie outbreak is beginning to overrun Korea. He soon finds himself fighting to survive as the zombie virus begins infecting other passengers on the train. The American remake was expected to follow a similar plot, but set on a train to New York.
Talks of an American remake of Train to Busan have existed since the film first became a hit. But the first official news came when it was announced James Wan had signed on to produce and Gary Dauberman was writing the script. Then in February 2021, it was announced that Timo Tjahjanto would be directing the remake. The film getting removed from the release schedule is not a huge surprise. It was set to come out in less than a year, and there has yet to be any news on the cast, let alone when filming would begin. Since the film was not announced to be outright canceled, it could be that the studio removed it in order to give it more time in preproduction, rather than rush the production to meet the April release date.
While a remake has a lot of fans feeling cautious, the names attached to The Last Train to New York have many feeling excited. Wan has had his name attached to a lot of the most successful horror films of recent years, from the Saw series to The Conjuring franchise with all its spin-offs. On top of that, the remake’s writer Dauberman has also made a big name for himself in the horror world. He was one of the co-writers on the 2017 It adaptation, The Nun, and wrote the Annabelle trilogy of films. Additionally, while Tjahjanto is a smaller name, he does have directing experience in both horror and action, two things a Train to Busan remake needs. He directed the Netflix action movie The Night Comes for Us, as well as horror films like V/H/S 2 and May the Devil Take You.
Stay tuned to Collider for any future updates on the status of The Last Train to New York.