The prolific and busy Oscar-winning director is developing his first animated film while also working on an English-language film, a ‘Parasite’ TV series for HBO Max, and more
Bong Joon-Ho, director of the Oscar-winning drama, Parasite, has set his sights on a much different creature: an animated film about humans and deep-sea creatures. The project had been previously described as an action-horror feature, which makes sense. Have you seen deep-sea creatures? Joon-Ho has partnered with Korean VFX company 4th Creative Party (Snowpiercer, Okja) since 2018 to develop the screenplay, which was just completed in January.
Joon-Ho is also working on an English-language film that will be produced before the deep-sea animated feature. “It feels like I’m splitting my brain in half left and right writing these two scripts,” Joon-Ho said of the process of working on both scripts in tandem. The busy director will also act as executive producer on a Parasite TV series for HBO Max alongside Adam McKay, who explains, “It’s an original series. It’s in the same universe as the feature, but it’s an original story that lives in that same world.”
Ensuring both talented hands are completely full, Joon-Ho will also serve as president of the jury at the 2021 Venice Film Festival while producing the immigration drama Sea Fog with Participant Media, based on the 2014 Korean film Haemoo.