Korean bestselling thriller The Kidnapping Day, which was previously adapted into a hit show at home and then acquired by Amazon Prime Video for select territories, is set for an Arabic-language movie adaptation.
It is among a trio of works being acquired by Egyptian production and development company Irth as part of a new strategy to source stories and intellectual property from beyond traditional European and American markets.
Written by celebrated Korean mystery and thriller writer Jeong Hai-yeon, The Kidnapping Day follows a desperate man who kidnaps the daughter of a wealthy family. Nothing goes to plan after the girl loses her memory leading to a closer, complicated relationship between the pair, and the eventual uncovering a wider chain of secrets.
Published in 2019, the work was adapted as a TV series in Korea, which ran on national network ENA in the fall of 2023.
“We are interested in stories that can travel, not because we want to reproduce them exactly as they were written, but because we believe a strong story can find a new life within a different culture,” said Haitham Dabbour, co-founder of Irth.
“Korean and Brazilian literature offer incredibly rich worlds, genres and characters that are still relatively underexplored within Arabic cinema. Our goal is to build a slate that is international in its sources but distinctly Arab in its eventual cinematic expression.”
The company is currently finalizing the rights to a second Korean novel and a Brazilian novel, with the titles and development details to be announced at a later stage.
The initiative builds on Irth’s wider mandate to develop film, television and other dramatic content for the Arab market, which also saw it enter into a recently announced strategic partnership Cairo-based MAD Solutions.
