EXCLUSIVE: Hawaii Five-O star Daniel Dae Kim and his CBS-based production company 3AD are partnering with Sriram Das’ Das Films (November Man) to develop Mike Kim’s Escaping North Korea: Defiance And Hope In The World’s Most Repressive Country, as a feature film. Rosalind Ross (Matador) is attached to pen the adaptation, and the South Korean-born Daniel Dae Kim will star as Mike Kim (no relation).

The 2008 memoir chronicles a first-hand account of a high-risk mission to lead a group of refugees over the North Korean border through Southeast Asia using a modern-day Underground Railroad. Over the course of his four years in Asia, Mike Kim would end up aiding thousands of people of all ages find safe haven through his humanitarian missions. The project is timely given the recent border standoff and escalation in tensions between North and South Korea.

Chris S. Lee, founder and co-CEO of Be Funny Studios, a Seoul-based digital studio established in conjunction with Funny or Die, is producing. Haroon Saleem (Chronicles of Narnia, Into The Forest) will executive produce.

Daniel Dae Kim is currently in production on the sixth season of CBS’ Hawaii Five-0, where he stars as Chin Ho Kelly. Ross currently has in-development feature film script Lioness about a secretly gay U.S. Marine serving in Iraq, with Ellen Page set to star.

Daniel Dae Kim is repped by APA, Anonymous Content, and Klevan/Longarzo. Ross is with ICM Partners, Heroes and Villains Entertainment and Peter Sample at Jackoway Tyerman. Mike Kim is repped by attorney Usman Shaikh at U.S. Law Group.