Director Bong Joon Ho Says His Animated Film Won’t Release Until 2025-2026; Inspired By ‘The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures Of The Abyss’

South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho (The Host, Memories of Murder, Snowpiercer) was on the rise long before his Best Picture and Best Director Oscars for the fantastic thriller, Parasite. After the film’s release, he’s gathered quiet a large following in the west among mainstream audiences and we’re all excited to see what he gives us next.

Bong Joon Ho is currently at the Cannes Film Festival (Parasite won the Palme d’Or previously in 2019) this week and dished about a couple of upcoming projects he’s been working on via Indie Wire, including his untitled animated film. It was revealed back in May, that the director would be making an animated film inspired by the 2007 French scientific book The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of The Abyss from Claire Nouvian. However, it won’t be his next project as he’s now announced that it likely won’t be ready for a release until 2025 or 2026.

“…Inspired by a French scientific book that my wife bought and brought home. The pictures of the sea creatures were extraordinary. After that my imagination took over,” the director said of his untitled animated film. He continued to give a potential timeline for the release date, “The underwater colors are absolutely splendid. The starting point was the book. The story and animation flows from it. Animation is something I really wanted to try. I think the project will be done after my next film. I have the team for special effects. It may come out in 2025 or 2026.”

Check out a flip-through of the book below which is visually stunning.

Bong Joon Ho is also working alongside Adam McKay for a HBO series that takes place within the same world of Parasite, except will be set in the United States, the filmmaker reiterating earlier in the year that the project isn’t a remake but an original story.

PARASITE – Ki-taek’s family of four is close, but fully unemployed, with a bleak future ahead of them. The son Ki-woo is recommended by his friend, a student at a prestigious university, for a well-paid tutoring job, spawning hopes of a regular income. Carrying the expectations of all his family, Ki-woo heads to the Park family home for an interview. Arriving at the house of Mr. Park, the owner of a global IT firm, Ki-woo meets Yeon-kyo, the beautiful young lady of the house. But following this first meeting between the two families, an unstoppable string of mishaps lies in wait.

SOURCE: INDIE WIRE

‘The Marvels’: South Korean Actor Park Seo-Joon Rumored For Role; Played Min In Oscar-Winner ‘Parasite’

We might be getting an actor from Best Picture winner Parasite in Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels, if a new casting rumor ends up getting confirmed. South Korean actor Park Seo-Joon, who had a small role as tutor Min in Parasite is being mentioned by a local outlets as landing an offer/in talks for an undisclosed role in the Captain Marvel sequel.

Forbes points out mainstream news outlets haven’t chimed-in on the casting alongside the actor’s agency or Marvel Studios.

International outlets have been able to land these types of casting stories in the past, however, we should be cautious until there is further confirmation.

He wouldn’t be the first South Korean actor to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Claudia Kim played Dr. Helen Cho (mother of Amadeus Cho) in Avengers: Age of Ultron and has Train To Busan’s Don Lee taking the role of Gilgamesh in Chloe Zhao’s Eternals.

If confirmed, Park Seo-Joon would join Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau, newcomer Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan, and Zawe Ashton is reportedly playing the film’s villain. There is also an expectation the sequel will share cast members with the Disney+ series Secret Invasion as the cosmic organization S.W.O.R.D. will have a large role in both MCU projects.

I’m sure fans are curious if we’ll see other characters join the roster such as Blue Marvel leading to the MCU version of The Ultimates and if it will have a larger connection to the Skrull invasion. It remains to be seen if villains like Jonathan Major’s Kang The Conqueror or Skrull Queen Veranke could be the threats or something else entirely.

The Marvels has a production team that includes cinematographer Sean Bobbitt (Judas & The Black Messiah) and production designer Cara Brower (Candyman). It’s confirmed to shoot primarily at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England under the working title of Jambalaya.

The sequel will be released on November 11, 2022.

Oscar-Winning Director Bong Joon Ho Aiming To Make An Animated Film About Sea Creatures

Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho made waves with his Oscar-winning thriller Parasite, earning four awards including ones for Best Pictures and Best Director.

Screen Daily (spotted via The Playlist) has revealed that the director is looking at making an animated feature film after developing it since 2018 and has completed a script in January. The CGI animation project will explore the drama between humans and sea creatures. However, this won’t be the next film but will happen after that next film.

Animation studio 4th Creature Party will be heading up the project . The company has previously worked with Bong Joon Ho on his previous films The Host, Snowpiercer, and the Netflix film Okja.

The full CGI animation will deal with the drama that arises between deep sea creatures and human beings. 4th Creative Party will produce. Primarily based in Seoul with branches in Busan and Beijing, the company has worked on VFX for films such as Bong’s The Host, Snowpiercer and Okja, as well as Park Chan-wook’s Old Boy, Stoker and The Handmaiden.

It’s interesting that Pixar is about to release their own sea creature movie next month with the Italian-set Luca, however, the two projects are likely going to be very different from each other in the end.

SOURCE: SCREEN DAILY