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Liam Neeson to play Gen. MacArthur in Korean War film

August 12, 2015

Liam Neeson (Korea Times file)

SEOUL (Yonhap) — Hollywood action star Liam Neeson will take the role of U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur in a forthcoming Korean film about a historic military operation that he led during the 1950-53 Korean War, the film’s producer said Wednesday.

The movie, which is roughly translated into “Incheon Landing Operation,” tells the story of eight heroic Korean troop members who successfully carried out a covert “X-ray” operation that preceded the Incheon landing operation in the Yellow Sea that shifted the momentum of the Korean War, Taewon Entertainment said.

It will be helmed by Lee Jae-han, known for “A Moment to Remember” (2004) and “71-Into the Fire” (2010).

“We plan to go into the production process in late September with a production cost of 15 billion won (US$12.62 million),” Jeong Tae-won, head of the movie company, told Yonhap News Agency. “We’re going to hold a news conference to promote the film on Sept. 15, the anniversary of the Incheon Landing.”

Neeson will soon come to South Korea for the filming of the movie that aims to open in the first half of next year, the company said.

Korean actor Lee Jung-jae, who appeared in the current Korean box-office hit “Assassination,” is known to be one of the strongest candidates for the role of the leader of the South Korean intelligence unit that conducted the “X-ray” operation.

Neeson, who originally broke through with dramas like “Schindler’s List” and “Michael Collins”, became known to a whole new generation of film fans with 2008 action hit “Taken.”

The landing operation, executed about three months into the war, helped turn the tide for South Korea and the U.N. forces and set the stage for them to retake the South Korean capital of Seoul from North Korea two weeks later.

The two Koreas are still technically at war because the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.