‘Love in the Big City’ Receives Grants from MCST & KOCCA

Gay Korea

2023-04-25
08:10

According to The Daily Sports, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) and the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) have released funds to its domestic OTT and production companies in Korea through the “Online Streaming Platform (OTT) Specialized Content Production Support Project”.

This year, KOCCA almost doubled the limit on OTT production support cost from 1.44 billion won to 3 billion won. It reflects the demand and government’s willingness to strengthen the global competitiveness of K-content through OTT. A total of 27 pieces of content were selected for this year’s OTT production support project, with 17 dramas and 10 film features selected. In the drama category, works of various genres and materials such as science fiction, fantasy, and thriller were selected.

Merry Christmas Entertainment was granted 1.5 billion Korean won (approximately around 1.1 million USD) from the MCST and KOCCA’s production support project for their upcoming gay drama, “Love in the Big City”. It consists of eight episodes and is based on Sang Young Park’s best-selling novel of the same name. It depicts the story of a South Korean gay writer and HIV-positive searching for happiness in the lonely city of Seoul. The grant is a significant boost and a testament to the growing popularity of the genre, ‘Boys Love (BL)’ in South Korea.

The drama will be under the direction of Huh Jin Ho, the master of Korean melodies who created ‘Christmas in August’, ‘Spring Day Goes’, and ‘Princess Deokhye’, and directed ‘Would You Be There’, ‘Marriage Eve’, and ‘New Year’s Eve’. It is scheduled to be released in 2024.

Source: (1)