British television series Life on Mars is getting a Korean adaptation on OCN, and the potential cast is coming together nicely. Offers are currently out to Jung Kyung-ho (Smart Prison Living), Go Ah-sung (Radiant Office), and Park Sung-woong (Man to Man) to headline the time-slip crime thriller about a detective who travels back to the 1970s and has to solve crimes to return home. It sounds like Tunnel in reverse, but that’s not a bad thing—I’d watch Tunnel again forwards, backwards, or sideways.
The BBC drama originally aired in 2006 and was subsequently adapted into American, Spanish, Russian, and Czech versions, which is hopefully a good sign that it’s a got a great story. It’s about a contemporary detective who gets hit by a car and wakes up in 1973, where he is still a police officer at the same exact precinct, but as a junior officer one rank lower. The original was more of a classic police procedural, focusing on different crimes in each episode, but the Korean adaptation will be about a serial murder case.
Jung Kyung-ho is up to play the lead character (Sam Tyler in the original), a detective who struggles with the lack of forensic procedure and the old-school way of investigating in the ’70s. A major theme in the original show is this character’s confusion over whether he’s a time-traveler or a crazy person, though it remains to be seen if that ambiguity will carry over in the adaptation.
Park Sung-woong has been offered the role of the section chief who will become Jung Kyung-ho’s supervisor in the ’70s, and he’s described as a macho man who hits first and talks later, but has a warm heart towards victims. Go Ah-sung’s role hasn’t been specified, but in the original series there’s one female police officer on the team, so I’m guessing that’ll be her. In addition, funny character actor Oh Dae-hwan (Return, Live Up to Your Name) is up for a supporting role. Can’t go wrong with a squad like that.
PD Lee Jung-hyo of successful adaptation The Good Wife and stylish crime thriller Heartless City will be at the helm, and OCN is planning to broadcast it this summer beginning in June.