New Line has acquired remake rights to the 2010 Korean action-thriller “The Man From Nowhere” from CJ Entertainment.

Directed by Lee Jeong-beom, the original film follows a pawnshop keeper with a violent past who takes on a drug- and organ-trafficking ring to save the child who’s his only friend. “The Man From Nowhere” won the Korean box office for five consecutive weekends and wound up with a $41 million total.

The movie starred Won Bin, whose character worked as a pawnbroker living in a rundown basement in a Seoul slum. He avoids the junkies and deadbeats who inhabit his building, but has a soft spot for youngster So-mi (Kim Sae-ron), who often visits him to escape her violent home life.

Dimension Films originally acquired the property for a remake, but the rights reverted to CJ.

No producer is currently attached to the project.

In his review for Variety, Russell Edwards wrote, “Helmer Lee Jeong-beom (“Cruel Winter Blues”) shows a flair for action sequences, squeezing tension out of every fight scene choreographed by Park Jung-ryul.”

The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.