'Extraordinary Attorney Woo' maker to create webtoon-based K-drama series

KT Skylife Co., a broadcasting unit within South Korean telecom behemoth KT Corp., is slated to boost its investment in intellectual property content, following the enormous success of “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” one of the hottest non-English drama series on Netflix last year.   

The broadcasting firm is set to begin shooting the new drama series based on a popular Korean webtoon, the title of which means “the daytime moon," in March. The firm's TV channel ENA aired Attorney Woo last year, which follows a newbie attorney with Asperger’s syndrome, as well as an impressive memory and a creative mind.

The webtoon series centers on a romance between members of royal families during ancient times on the Korean peninsula. It was published from May 2013 to August 2017 on portal giant Naver Corp., logging more than 700 million views.   

The cartoon is still popular in Korea – local musicians released five theme songs for the webtoon in 2021. Last year Korean content creation startup BY4M Studio said it will produce an animated version of the webtoon.

KT Skylife and Attorney Woo’s co-producer KT Studio Genie are the two main arms of KT’s media businesses. Last November, KT Skylife acquired Media Genie from KT Studio Genie and launched Skylife TV, which operates 12 TV channels. KT Skylife and KT Studio Genie respectively hold 62.7% and 37.3% stakes in the new entity.

Backed by Attorney Woo’s success, KT Skylife’s revenue for the January-September 2022 period reached 763.1 billion won ($620 million), similar to yearly revenue of 763.1 billion won in 2021.

Write to Han-Gyeol Seon at always@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.