Reza Rahadian, Dian Sastrowardoyo Starrer ‘Descendants of the Sun’ Heads to Busan Market as Barunson E&A Launches Sales

Barunson E&A will launch international sales for “Descendants of the Sun,” a big-screen version of the landmark Korean series that first aired in 2016, at the Asian Contents & Film Market in Busan, running Oct. 10-13.

The Seoul-based company, known for producing Bong Joon Ho’s Academy Award winner “Parasite,” is making the film alongside Dapur Film, Tobali Putra Productions, NEWKO and Barunson C&C, its own subsidiary production arm. NEW (Next Entertainment World), owner of the original intellectual property, has come on board as a co-production company.

Production has wrapped on both parts of the film, which were shot back-to-back. Part One is aiming for an Indonesian theatrical bow by mid-2027.

The adaptation arrives at the original series’ 10th anniversary, a show many credit with helping bring K-drama to global audiences. The original drew a 38.8% rating in its home market, marked the first instance of a Korean drama airing simultaneously in China, where iQIYI logged upward of two billion streams, and eventually found distribution in more than 30 territories, among them the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Japan and Russia. The series was similarly popular in Indonesia a decade ago, fueling anticipation for the new version before any footage had surfaced.

The Indonesian film relocates the central romance to a setting and cultural backdrop specific to Indonesia while retaining what the studio describes as the emotional core of the original. Hanung Bramantyo, one of Indonesia’s leading box office directors, helms the project. He previously directed “Miracle in Cell No. 7,” an Indonesian version of the identically titled Korean film that ranks as the country’s eighth-highest-grossing domestic release.

Reza Rahadian and Dian Sastrowardoyo lead the cast. Rahadian’s credits include “Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash,” which won the Golden Leopard at Locarno, and Sastrowardoyo has appeared in Netflix’s “Cigarette Girl” as well as “The Fox King,” a Toronto Film Festival premiere.

“Ten years on, ‘Descendants of the Sun’ is still one of the titles people point to when they talk about the start of the K-drama wave,” said Barunson E&A CEO Yoonhee Choi. “We see the strength of the Korean IP as a starting point, not an endpoint. This adaptation places that globally recognized story under a different sun, in an Indonesian landscape with a local sensibility all its own. It retains the familiarity of a story audiences already know and love, while opening it to a new context and, we believe, audiences beyond Indonesia.”

“As the producer behind the original series, I deeply admire how the director has honored its spirit while creating a truly Indonesian story that I believe will translate just as powerfully wherever it’s seen,” added Woosik Seo, CEO of Barunson C&C and an executive producer on the film.

“Descendants of the Sun” heads an ACFM slate for Barunson E&A that also includes “Satan’s Slaves: Origin,” a prequel to Joko Anwar’s horror franchise, whose first two entries are among Indonesia’s highest-earning local films; “Stoneborn,” an occult mystery from the “Exhuma” creative team starring Jongseo Jeon of Cannes title “Burning” and Sul Kyung-gu of Venice title “Possible Love”; and “Ugly Duckling Ms. Maeng,” a comedy debuting at the Busan International Film Festival ahead of an Oct. 28 theatrical release.