[Photo&] American Web Novel 'Chasing Red' Reborn as a Hollywood Movie

The American web novel 'Chasing Red' is being reborn as a Hollywood movie. The film, which will begin production early next year, is based on a Wattpad web novel, starring Madelaine Petsch from the Netflix series 'Riverdale' and Gavin Casalegno from 'The Summer I Turned Pretty'.

Mr. Smith Entertainment will handle distribution, and it is set to be released as an Amazon Prime Video movie in the UK, Canada, Australia, and more. This work is an English web novel by Isabelle Ronin, which has recorded a cumulative view count of 260 million on Wattpad. It depicts the romance between basketball star Caleb and independent woman Veronica.

In 2023, it was also produced as an English original webtoon by Naver Webtoon, proving its popularity with 24 million views.

Naver Webtoon aims to apply the successful formula of web novels, webtoons, and adaptations that have been validated in Korea to the American market. In Korea, works such as 'The Youngest Son of a Conglomerate', 'Trauma Center' have already started as web novels, expanded into webtoons, and gained great popularity in video adaptations. Since 2022, Naver Webtoon has been adapting popular Wattpad works into webtoons, producing successful English webtoons such as 'The Owl and the Summer Sky', 'Float', 'Chasing Red'. The success of the 'Chasing Red' movie is expected to draw attention to the Korean-style 'IP' value chain. The webtoon industry analyzes that Hollywood is seeking to move away from its reliance on existing 'comics IP' and is looking for new IPs, with webtoons being a strong alternative.