When he's not kicking post-apocalyptic zombie ass and romancing the farm girl on The Walking Dead, he's making moves on the big screen. Steven Yeun is set to executive produce and star in the adaptation of Kang Chol-Hwan's autobiographical book The Aquariums of Pyongyang.
'Walking Dead' Star Adapting 'Aquariums of Pyongyang'
Produced by Radar Pictures, and based on Kang's 2005 memoir The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag, the film will tell the true story of one survivor's harrowing escape from a brutal North Korean concentration camp. Steven is attached to star as Kang Chol-Hwan.
Aquariums is set in North Korea, one of the last bastions of hardline Communism. Its leaders have kept a tight grasp on the one-party regime, quashing any nascent opposition movements and sending all suspected dissidents to its brutal concentration camps for "re-education." Kang Chol-Hwan is the first survivor of one of these camps to escape and tell his story to the world, documenting the extreme conditions in these gulags and providing a personal insight into life in North Korea.
Part horror story, part historical document, part memoir, part political tract, the book is a record of one man's triumph over unbelievable adversity to expose the truths of North Korea to the modern world.
Like I said, Steven's been making some moves. He'll providing his voice for the upcoming animated feature adaptation of the comic book series Chew. You can also see him in indie sci-fi drama I Origins, which hits theaters in July. The Walking Dead returns for its fifth season on AMC in October.
