Disney Live Action is developing a feature film based on Miye Lee’s bestselling Korean novel Dallergut Dream Department Store, with Patrick Ness attached to write the screenplay. Ness himself announced it with characteristic wit on Instagram:
“So this is happening! I’m writing a film for Disney based on a massive Korean bestseller. Dreams for sale…”
Dreams for sale. Honestly, that’s the pitch in three words. If that premise doesn’t make you immediately want to read the book and then watch the Disney film, I’m not sure we can be friends.
With the writer of A Monster Calls translating it for the screen, we have very high hopes.
Who Is Miye Lee?
Miye Lee was born in Busan, South Korea, in 1990. She studied materials science and engineering at Busan National University and later worked as a semiconductor engineer at Samsung Electronics. Writing novels was not, by conventional wisdom, the next logical step.
And yet.
Her debut novel, Dallergut Dream Department Store, was published entirely through a crowdfunding service in Korea in 2020, drawing enthusiastic responses and favorable reviews, particularly from readers in their teens and twenties who powered the campaign to success.
What followed was one of the most remarkable publishing stories in recent Korean literary history. The book became Korea’s best-selling novel in 2021. It has since been published in over 20 territories and sold more than two million copies worldwide.
A sequel, Return to the Dallergut Dream Department Store, followed, with a third installment still in the works.
What Is Dallergut Dream Department Store?
The official description captures the world perfectly:
In a mysterious town hidden in our collective subconscious there’s a department store that sells dreams. Day and night, visitors both human and animal shuffle in to purchase their latest adventure. Each floor specializes in a specific type of dream: childhood memories, food dreams, ice skating, dreams of stardom. Flying dreams are almost always sold out. Some seek dreams of loved ones who have died. For Penny, an enthusiastic new hire, working at Dallergut is the opportunity of a lifetime. As she uncovers the workings of this whimsical world, she bonds with a cast of unforgettable characters, including Dallergut, the flamboyant and wise owner, Babynap Rockabye, a famous dream designer, Maxim, a nightmare manufacturer who keeps to the shadows.
But the story doesn’t stay purely whimsical.
When strange and dangerous things begin happening to the sleeping clientele, Penny must uncover the mystery before whatever is causing the disturbances spreads beyond the store.
Critics were positive, to say the least.
Opinion News called it a book that “resonates with and comforts those who don’t even dare to dream and find themselves exhausted by the harsh realities of life.” Insight described it as having “the unique ability to evoke both tears and tranquility — a perfect read for moments of exhaustion and the yearning to escape reality, with the power to mend weary hearts.”
Why Patrick Ness Is the Right Choice
Patrick Ness is a prolific author and screenwriter whose novels include the Chaos Walking young adult series, And the Ocean Was Our Sky, More Than This, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, Release, and Burn, among others. He also created and wrote the eight-part BBC Doctor Who spinoff Class.
Ness knows how to hold a whimsical premise with enough gravity that it doesn’t float away. He knows how to make a world that exists outside of ordinary reality feel completely emotionally true. That is precisely what this story requires.
Jessica Virtue, executive vice president of production at Disney Live Action, will oversee the project. No director or cast has been announced, and the film is still in development.
Become One of the Dream Store’s Customers
Dallergut Dream Department Store is the rare kind of cozy fantasy that you’d wish you didn’t finish in one go because it’s just that good.
The warmth in Penny’s world feels genuine because Lee has thought carefully about what dreams actually mean to the people buying them. It is, as one reader put it, “a healing, immersive crossover fantasy novel.” And it is the perfect book for a quiet evening when the real world has been a little too much.
By the time Disney’s casting announcements arrive, and the trailer fills your screen with images of the store’s glowing floors and dream-filled shelves, you’ll already know exactly what Dallergut looks like.
So, what are you waiting for? The Dallergut Dream Department Store is patiently awaiting its next customer!
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