South Korea’s platform giant Naver Corp. has completed the production of a film based on the intellectual property (IP) of a Wattpad story “Boot Camp” and is readying global release.

Maeil Business Newspaper has learned on Tuesday that Naver is fixing the schedule to release “Boot Camp,” a film adaptation of a romantic comedy story with the same name on Wattpad, the world’s largest web story platform in Canada Naver acquired for 660 billion won ($536.2 million) in 2021.

The film has been backed by the 100 billion won global IP fund created through Wattpad WEBTOON Studios founded by Naver to move onto global video content productions. “Boot Camp” is the Korean internet behemoth’s first global movie production based on its own IP content.

The original “Boot Camp” has gained some 26 million views in North America. The story retains quite a large fan base, especially in the U.S.

Drew Ray Tanner, a Canadian actor known for his role on “Riverdale,” took the lead role. North American movie studios including Great Pacific Media and December Films joined the production.

Naver and Wattpad have plans to adapt three more popular Wattpad stories into films or TV series for the North American market, including “Boulevard,” which is in Spanish and has some 105 million readers. The film and TV adaptations will be funded 100 percent by Naver.

Naver plans to expand into other global content markets in Europe and South America with its own online comics and stories.

By Hwang Soon-min and Chang Iou-chung

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]