Super Fan will tell the true story of Sungwoo Lee, the beloved Kansas City Royals fan

SK Global will co-finance and co-produce with CJ E&M the feature film Super Fan, it was announced by John Penotti, President of Ivanhoe Pictures/SK Global and Jeong Tae-sung, CEO of CJ Entertainment.

The Super Fan screenplay hails from Young Il Kim (Showtime‘s Billions), and is based on the true story of Sungwoo Lee, a most unlikely booster of the Kansas City Royals baseball team who became a celebrity in that city for his passionate devotion to the team. Lee was a long-time, long distance fan of the Royals when in 2014 he made a pilgrimage to Kansas City where he was embraced by fans, who later credited the Korean native with a miraculous win streak that led to the Royals’ first World Series appearance in thirty years.

“We are very excited about this terrific, heart-warming story, a tale of two cultures linked by a shared passion, and social media,” says Penotti. “We couldn’t have a better partner for this project than CJ. In terms of both content and execution, the project uniquely lends itself to an organic U.S.-Korea collaboration, and we look forward to critical and box office success in both Korea and throughout the globe.”

“We are looking forward to seeing such a natural US/Korea co production dealing with a rare true story that can only happen in our current day,” adds Tae-sung. “We are excited to be taking on this endeavor with Ivanhoe.”

Super Fan marks Ivanhoe/SK Global’s second announced local language sports-themed project in a week, with Ivanhoe’s recently announced partnering with Beijing Hairun Pictures on My Other Home, a biopic currently shooting in Beijing starring NBA and CBA star Stephon Marbury.