Naver Webtoon announced on the 27th that the Thai drama “Beauty Newbie,” based on the original Korean webtoon “My ID is Gangnam Beauty,” will be aired early next year. “Beauty Newbie” is a Thai drama based on a webtoon original, not a remake of a Korean drama produced in 2018. It consists of 14 episodes, and GMMTV, a representative production company in Thailand, participated in the production. Thai popular actors such as Viyada Biem and Win Metawin have been confirmed to appear.
“My ID is Gangnam Beauty” is a work discovered through Naver Webtoon’s contest. It is a story about the protagonist who was teased for her appearance since childhood, but starts her college life after undergoing plastic surgery and faces various episodes. It was serialized from April 2016 to December 2017 and was published in a total of eight languages, including Thai, recording over 1.4 billion global views.
The author of “My ID is Gangnam Beauty,” Gi Maeng-gi, said, “I realized that the status of webtoons has increased by seeing a work that has already been filmed in Korea and has been completed for a while being filmed again in another country,” and added, “I was surprised by the news of the participation of a splendid production team and famous actors, and I am looking forward to what kind of wonderful drama will be produced.” Naver Webtoon has over 300 domestic and foreign video projects in progress, based on webtoons and web novels from Naver Webtoon and Wattpad, and projects of various genres such as dramas, movies, and animations are being carried out around the world, with a focus on North America.
Last year, “Lore Olympus,” an English original work of Naver Webtoon, achieved three awards at major U.S. cartoon awards, and is currently being produced as a TV animation in collaboration with Jim Henson Company, a famous production company in the United States. Another English original work, “GremoryLand,” is being produced as a movie in collaboration with Vertigo Entertainment, a U.S. production company. The trend of global video production based on Naver Webtoon’s webtoon IP is increasing. Last year, “Money Game,” a webtoon, was produced as a U.S. web entertainment, and the Chinese movie “Duxing Yueqiu,” based on the webtoon “Moonyou,” by Jo Seok, recorded second place in the 2022 Chinese box office. In Japan, the webtoon “The Guide to a Perfect Otaku Girlfriend” was reborn as a short drama of the same name.
This year, the drama “Gauss Electronics,” based on the webtoon of the same name, was released in China in February, and the webtoon “Iduna!” is also scheduled to be released as an animation in China. The global video production based on Naver Webtoon’s webtoon IP is expanding.
