Berlin Gala Film ‘Time To Hunt’ Abandons Theatrical Release, Heads to Netflix

“Time to Hunt,” the Korean action thriller that had its world premiere last month as a gala screening at the Berlin Film Festival, has given up its theatrical release plans. Instead, it will be released by streaming giant Netflix in mid-April.

The move has not sat easily with Contents Panda, the Korean sales company which had pre-sold the film to more than 30 overseas distributors. Contents Panda told Variety that it expects to sue production firm Little Big Pictures.

The film was directed by Yoon Sung-hyun and tells a revenge tale of four no-hopers in a dystopian near future who pick the wrong target to rob. It pulls together a cast of rising star youngsters including Lee Je-hoon, Ahn Jae-hong, Choi Woo-shik, Park Jeong-min and Park Hae-soo.

The film’s planned Korean commercial release shortly after its Berlin debut was repeatedly delayed by the disruption to cinemagoing in the country caused by the spread of the coronavirus. Little Big Pictures, which was the film’s principal financier and its local distributor, took the decision to go straight to online instead.

“After a long wait, we are pleased to announce that we have decided to simultaneously release “Time to Hunt” to 190 countries around the world through Netflix. With the danger of the Covid-19 virus continuing to spread and the global outbreak continuing, we decided to make this decision in the hope that it would be the most effective and a way to introduce our work to more audiences. ”

The company said that the film would be released exclusively by Netflix, from April 10, 2020, with 29 sub-titled language versions.