Hulu developing Korean drama ‘American Seoul’

Disney-owned US streamer Hulu is in development on hour-long Korean drama American Seoul.

The series is written and executive produced by Lana Cho, who is also currently adapting Maurene Goo’s young adult novel Somewhere Only We Know as a feature film for Netflix.

Sebastian Lee and David Kim, who are behind The Good Doctor for ABC and Pachinko for Apple TV+, will also exec produce.

American Seoul will tell the story of a young Korean-American woman who moves to Seoul for work and discovers that she is the heir of a Korean dynasty.

This latest commission for Cho comes just a month after she sold her adaptation of Goo’s novel to Netflix. This is also not the first time she has worked with Hulu, having previously written for the streamer’s reboot of Four Weddings And A Funeral.

Her other credits include CW superhero series Arrow and NBC sci-fi series Timeless. Cho also serves as a co-executive producer on Amazon’s I Know What You Did Last Summer.

American Seoul joins the growing wave of Korean content making its way west, with recent K-pop deals with HBO Max and MGM underlining the rising interest. Earlier this year, Netflix also unveiled its big spend in the country, outlining a $500m investment plan.

Other recent moves have seen JTBC Studios take a majority stake in Mare Of Easttown producer Wiip, marking the entry of the South Korean pay TV firm’s production division in the US, while last month Korean media giant CJ ENM unveiled plans to invest more than ₩5tn ($4.5bn) in content creation over the next five years in a bid to expand its global presence.