Don Lee Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Korean historical action drama 12.12: The Day has grossed $90.5M and sailed past the 12 million admissions mark at the Korean box office over the Christmas holiday period to become the highest grossing film of 2023. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ retained its lead at the top of the South Korean box office on what was the quietest cinema-going weekend in more than a year. The animated franchise movie held up reasonably. It maintained a nearly 44% market share, dropped only 32% week-on-week and was untroubled by competition from new releases. The film earned $1.91 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Veteran Chinese director Zhang Yimou will be presented with a lifetime achievement award at the upcoming edition of the Festival of Far East Film in Italy’s Udine (April 24 – May 2). The lineup will include three films by Zhang: his 2023 political thriller “Under the Light” in its competition section; as well as “To Live” and “Raise the Red Lantern” in its restored classics section. The festival’s total lineup includes 74 films in total – 47 in competition and 28 out of competition) from 11 countries.

Jessica Kiang The shortest distance between two points is popularly believed to be a straight line. But if one of those points is the chin, cheekbone or torso of some sneering and/or psychotic Korean gangster, the shortest route is actually the arc described by either one of Korean megastar Don Lee‘s fists, here playing the fists of Detective Ma, protagonist of the ludicrously watchable “Roundup” series.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief In Berlin with “The Roundup: Punishment,” part four of the action movie series that he created and stars in, the larger-than-life Korean American Don Lee finds himself simultaneously in multiple timely and lucrative businesses. These include the Marvel superhero business, the Korea-to-Hollywood remake business, “The Roundup” franchise and its multiple spinoff possibilities. Lee may even be in the business of saving Korean cinema, which is currently having one of its periodic wobbles.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief A three-year run of poor box office performances is sure to hurt the South Korean sales companies touting their new titles at the European Film Market — but not by that much. Certainly, the box office malaise undermines the ability to market some titles on the strength of their theatrical earnings back home. But the Korean film industry still has numerous other calling cards.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Lotte Cultureworks will launch “Holy Night: Demon Hunters,” likely to be one of the biggest Korean movies of the year, at next month’s European Film Market in Berlin. The occult-themed action movie stars Don Lee, the Korean-American superstar who also fronts “The Roundup” comedy-action franchise. The fourth instalment in that series “The Roundup: Punishment” will have its world premiere in the Berlin festival’s Berlinale Special section, with Lee expected to be in attendance, giving Lotte some additional momentum with the new title launch.

Badland Hunters director Heo Myeong-haeng and lead actor Don Lee have opened up about working together on the upcoming movie.Next week, Netflix will premiere its new original Korean film, the post-apocalyptic Badland Hunters led by Don Lee (also known as Ma Dong-seok). In a press conference for the upcoming film, the actor shared that he was the one who had proposed working with director Heo Myeong-haeng.Heo had been the stunt coordinator behind the hit The Roundup movie franchise, which Lee also starred in.

Badland Hunters, led by Don Lee. Here’s everything we know about the cast and plot of the upcoming film.The upcoming action movie is set in a post-apocalyptic world devastated by a massive earthquake.

Gyeongseong Creature starring Han So-hee and Park Seo-joon, will air this year.Today (January 8), Netflix announced that season two of Gyeongseong Creature will premiere sometime in 2024. It comes just days after the streaming service release part two of the first season on January 5.According to a press release, the second season of Gyeongseong Creature will be set in modern-day Seoul, 78 years after the events first season.

Stray Kids have teased plans to release new music and embark on a world tour in 2024.On New Year’s Day (January 1), Stray Kids released the 2024 edition of their annual ‘Step Out’ video series, where the K-pop boyband looked back on their achievements in 2023 and their plans for the new year.In the clip, the eight-member boyband teased plans for a world tour in 2024, alongside two music releases – one album and one special album – as well as a fanmeeting event.In additional the group will also be putting out more video content, including eight ‘SKZ-PLAYER’ releases, as well as new episodes of ‘2 Kids Show’ and ‘1 Kid’s Room’. Check out the boyband’s ‘Step Out 2024’ video here:In 2023, Stray Kids scored their first Billboard Hot 100 entry with ‘LALALALA’, a single from their November mini-album, ‘ROCK-STAR’.

Badland Hunters, starring Don Lee.Badland Hunters will follow Don Lee as Nam San, a hunter in a post-apocalyptic Seoul who has to navigate the treacherous wilderness of a world where chaos reigns supreme.Lee will be joined by actors Lee Hee-jun, Lee Jun-young, Roh Jeong-eui and An Ji-hye. Meanwhile, Badland Hunters will be directed by Heo Myeong-haeng, who previously worked as the stunts director on films such as The Roundup: No Way Out, Jung_E and more.The teaser for the upcoming Netflix film previews the desolate yet captivating landscape of post-apocalyptic Seoul.

EXCLUSIVE: C.S. Lee (Dexter, Avatar: The Last Airbender) has joined the cast of Netflix’s Cobra Kai for its sixth and final season in an iconic role originating from The Karate Kid, Deadline has learned.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief No Maori Allowed, directed by Corinna Hunziger was named the winner of the Pasifika Award and recipient of a $5,000 cash prize at the Hawaii International Film Festival. It recounts the story of a teacher who unearths a secret past in the town of Pukekohe. Thet causes M?ori community figures to come forward to share personal stories that shaped their lives.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International “D.P.” creator Kim Bo-tong has signed with CAA for representation. The Korean screenwriter, who is also known as Kim Ho Yeol, is the creator and co-writer of the webtoon “D.P.” which was adapted into the Netflix military drama. The show, which premiered in 2021, earned multiple awards in various categories at the Baeksang Arts Awards in 2022, establishing it as one of the top Korean dramas of the year. “D.P.” returns later this month for Season 2. The series follows a team of Korean military police who are tasked with catching deserters. (Military service is mandatory for men between the ages of 18 and 35 in South Korea.)

EXCLUSIVE: Korean multi-hyphenate powerhouse Don Lee (aka Ma Dong-seok) is set to star in and produce an English-language feature adaptation of New York Times bestselling author Nicholas Sansbury Smith’s dystopian sci-fi novel series Hell Divers. The film will draw from the first three books in the series whose first installment was published by Blackstone in 2016; there are 10 books in total. 

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean blockbuster “The Roundup: No Way Out” suffered a 50% week-on-week decline, but it was still strong enough to see a pair of Hollywood newcomers. The third part of the Don Lee-starring Roundup franchise, “No Way Out” earned $5.16 million between Friday and Sunday, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council. It accounted for a 42% share of the market and attracted 650,000 additional spectators.

Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s fortnightly strand in which we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are appearing in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track… So, we’re going to do the hard work for you.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean-produced crime action film “The Roundup: No Way Out” dominated proceedings at the South Korean cinema box office for the second successive weekend. Its massive haul now totals $60 million. “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” opened with a puny second place. The Friday to Sunday period saw the film bring in $10.4 million from 1.32 million ticket sales and account for a 72% market share, according to data from Kobis, the data tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). Including pre-release previews and strong midweek sales, the film has now rushed on to an aggregate of $59.6 million that has been earned from 7.78 million spectators.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Crime action film “The Roundup: No Way Out” dominated the South Korean box office on its official opening weekend with a thumping $21.9 million performance. The film, the third in a franchise that pits a heavy-fisted cop, portrayed by Ma Dong-seok (aka Don Lee), against colorfully devious rogues, crushed all competing titles by taking an 88% market share. In terms of admissions, it attracted 2.82 million into cinemas between Friday and Sunday. The film’s official opening was on Wednesday (May 31). But it also enjoyed wide previews through much of the preceding week. Adding in the weekday takings and the preview activity, “The Roundup: No Way Out” has a current aggregate of $34.1 million and has sold a total of 4.51 million tickets, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council.

Eternals actor Ma Dong-seok (also known as Don Lee) as their profile pictures to get better customer service.Earlier this week, The Guardian reported that several Chinese social media users have started a trend of switching their profile pictures to photos of Korean-American actor Ma Dong-seok, best known for his roles as Gilgamesh in Marvel’s Eternals and Yoon Sang-hwa in Train To Busan.According to users on the recommendation app XiaoHongShu, using Ma in their avatars helped them resolve issues more quickly and got them better online customer service.One user, per The Guardian, claimed that they were ignored by customer service when using the photo of a girl as their profile image.  “After changing to the avatar of Ma Dong-seok, the customer service attitude was much more polite, and they even took the initiative to make up the price difference,” they said.Another user shared that changing her profile picture to a photo of Ma led to her property manager resolving an issue that she had previously raised several times in a matter of minutes.The trend has since spread to Weibo, a social network similar to Twitter, and social messaging app WeChat, which are two of the most widely-used social media platforms in China.

South Korea’s entertainment industry has postponed several events in the wake of the tragic crowd surge that killed more than 150 people in Seoul’s Itaewon district on Saturday night. The country is in a week-long period of mourning. 

Rebecca Souw Still riding high on the success of “The Roundup,” Korean indie film producer and seller K-Movie Entertainment, is showcasing a slate of 16 movies at the Asian and Contents Film Market, part of the Busan International Film Festival.

Campaigners and locals have banded together to stop the closure of a 300-year-old pathway alongside the River Irwell in Salford.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefProduction has begun on “The Roundup: No Way Out,” a sequel to record-breaking Korean action film “The Roundup.” Korean American actor Don Lee (“The Eternals”), also known as Ma Dong-seok, returns to the franchise as star and producer.The cast of “No Way Out” also includes Lee Jun-hyuk (“Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds,” “Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days,” TV’s “Stranger”) and Japanese actor Aoki Munetaka (“Rurouni Kenshin” series, “True Mothers,” “Silence”). The directing reins are once again held by Lee Sang-yong.The production is a re-collaboration between Don Lee’s Bigpunch Pictures, Hong Film and B.A.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefCJ ENM Hong Kong has secured the first and exclusive Pay TV, pay-per-view, video-on-demand and over-the-top (OTT) rights in key Southeast Asia markets to a slate of current and upcoming South Korean films. These are to play on the tvN Movies channel in Southeast Asia.

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures is set to remake critically acclaimed South Korean crime thriller The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil with original star Don Lee (aka Ma Dong-seok) reprising his lead role as a gang boss looking for redemption in the studio’s U.S. version.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Top Gun Maverick” flew to the top of the box office charts in South Korea over the weekend, with a supersonic $9.6 million opening loop. It replaced “The Witch: Part 2 The Other One,” which had been top dog for only a week.Tom Cruise, a regular visitor to Korea, jetted into Seoul with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and co-stars Miles Teller, Glen Powell and Greg Tarzan Davis to goose the movie’s takeoff in the country. Cruise professed himself grateful for the fan’s warm reception and talked up the importance of in-person visits to the cinema.Sub-distributed in Korea by Lotte Entertainment, the film opened on Wednesday and played on more than 1,900 screens.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Broker,” the art house drama film that appeared in competition in Cannes last month had a bright start in Korean cinemas, picking up over $6 million in its opening foray. Its score, however, was not enough to unseat mainstream crime actioner “The Roundup” from the weekend’s top spot.“Broker” earned $4.13 million over the Friday to Sunday weekend, according to data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). That put it second behind “The Roundup” with a weekend score of $6.69 million.

Dennis Harvey Film CriticOne of the most enjoyable South Korean action movies in recent years, 2017’s “The Outlaws” was a deft mix of brutal gang-warfare thrills and Keystone Cops comedics. It provided an ideal vehicle for Ma Dong-seok aka Don Lee (“Train to Busan” and “Eternals”) as the police investigator whose hit-first-ask-permission-later methods regularly got the job done while infuriating his superiors.That burly protagonist and his sidekicks are back in “The Roundup,” which despite a different directorial (newbie Lee Sang-yong replacing the prior edition’s Kang Yoon-seong) and writing crew, maintains the original’s strengths.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefLocally-produced action franchise movie “The Roundup” continued to stomp its way across the South Korean box office for a second weekend, giving theatres their best month of the year.Over the weekend. “The Roundup” rounded up $15.4 million from 2,520 screens nationwide, according to KOBIS, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefLocally-produced action franchise movie “The Roundup” blasted its way into the record books and elevated Korean box office to levels not seen for more than two years.The film enjoyed record levels of pre-sales, significant teaser activity the previous weekend and opened officially on Wednesday.Over the weekend proper it rounded up $21.1 million from 2,500 screens nationwide, according to KOBIS, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic).Its five-day cumulative (including the previews) is an astonishing $29.1 million, which makes it the second biggest film of the year, behind only “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and by far the highest grossing Korean film of the year to date. Those figures were earned from 2.5 million spectators between Friday and Sunday, and 3.5 million in five days.

,, and now, the latest chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefDon Lee, who stars as an Asian superhero in Marvel’s “Eternals,” will next be seen at the head of Korean franchise movie “The Roundup.”The film is a sequel to “The Outlaws,” a 2017 crime actioner that took $51 million at the Korean box office.

The season of somber action epics marches on, with Marvel’s Eternals (★★★☆☆) joining the ranks of recent brooding blockbusters like Black Widow and No Time to Die. Sagas of weary warriors reckoning with their losses would seem tailor-made to suit the zeitgeist of our weary world.

Eternals.WATCH: Angelina Jolie drops Maddox off at collegeEternals is set to follow in the footsteps of franchises like The Avengers in combining superstar actors with superhero characters.Angelina is joined in the cast by other Hollywood heavyweights including Salma Hayek (Frida, Bliss), Gemma Chan (Crazy Rich Asians), Richard Madden (Game of Thrones), Kit Harrington (Game of Thrones), Don Lee (Train to Busan), Lauren Ridolff (The Walking Dead) and Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick).Celebrating the