'Yumi’s Cells' to be adapted into animated film and musical

The webtoon poster for ″Yumi's Cells″ [NAVER WEBTOON]

Popular Naver webtoon “Yumi’s Cells” will be adapted into an animated film and musical.

"Yumi's Cells" centers around an average 30-something-year-old woman named Kim Yumi and some 200 different cells residing in her brain. Each of the cells have a different purpose, with some controlling her thoughts, some her emotions and others her behaviors.

The webtoon was recently adapted into a television series under the same title — co-produced by Studio Dragon, Marycow and Studio N — and streamed on Tving and aired on the cable channel tvN. The series was the first to combine the formats of 3-D animation and live-action scenes and successfully wrapped up its first season last month. The second season is currently in production.

Naver Webtoon’s subsidiary Studio N and Locus Animation Studios behind “Red Shoes” (2019) will co-produce the animated film, scheduled for a theater release in 2023.

Musical adaptation will be co-created by Studio N and musical production company Sam Company.

“Based on Naver Webtoon’s intellectual property (IP), we will expand into other areas of content and vitalize the webtoon IP industry,” according to Kwon Mi-kyung, the CEO of Studio N.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]