D-War - Production

Production

Originally titled Dragon Wars (and still referred to by this title in publicity material), D-War has a long production history in South Korea. The film was announced in 2002 by director Shim Hyung-rae as his follow-up project to 1999's Yonggary. A show reel appeared in early 2003, displaying the extensive amount of CGI used to create the various creatures. Despite heavy promotion via posters, press releases, and videos, principal photography did not begin until October 2004, continuing through December. The budget was set at 30 billion won (approximately US$33 million), but ultimately went over budget in order to create the various creatures in the film, with some outside estimation as high as $US75 million dollars. The DVD release confirmed that it did indeed cost US$75 million. In Korea, the budget of this movie was controversial because of the high costs and the poor reception abroad, which led to embarrassment over the true budget numbers, which were concealed to further shame.

As with Yonggary, Shim opted for a mostly American cast. Veteran actor Robert Forster landed a pivotal role and Jason Behr and Amanda Brooks were cast as the two young leads.

The next three years were spent creating the creature effects, all of which were done in house by Shim's Younggu-Art Movies company. The completed film premiered at the American Film Market in early 2007. The film was released in South Korea on August 1, 2007. In the U.S., the film was released on September 14, 2007.

On August 7, 2007, South Korea's MBC Morning Live TV Show broadcast the film's final scene on TV without the permission of the studio, causing a controversy. A few days later the Ministry of Culture and Tourism released a statement in which they said that the incident did not violate South Korean copyright laws.