Bong Joon-ho says his horror follow-up to this year’s Mickey 17 is ‘my life project. I’ve been thinking about it since 2001.’
It feels like we’ve been waiting forever to see Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17, but after two delays the filmmaker’s follow-up to the all-conquering Parasite is finally almost here. Incredibly, it’s been almost six years since Parasite released into the world and it feels like another film from Bong is long overdue. Despite the delays and some worrying stories about Warner Bros tampering with his latest film, the director’s sci-fi cloning satire will release in UK cinemas next month.
Beyond that, we know that Bong is working on a CG-animated drama feature about deep sea creatures whose underwater oasis is threatened. Last we heard, that project is around halfway complete. Production began last summer, with Bong himself having hand drawn the storyboards for the entire film.
The story is said to focus on the relationship between marine life and humans. Beyond that, we know little apart from that the project is costing around $52m, making it the most expensive animated film in Korean history. Sony Pictures is involved and a global release is planned.
However, Bong has now revealed to MBC Korea (via Fangoria) what his next live action project will look like – or at least what the first minute and a half will look like. Bong revealed to the outlet that it will be an action-horror set in Seoul’s subway network. He also added that the film is “my life project. I’ve been thinking about it since 2001.”
Read more: Parasite review | A flat-out must-see film
After being asked to describe the first 90 seconds of the film, the director said: “We’re running through the underground section of the subway. In the car next to us, people wearing similar clothes start to come over to our side. We’re running. A lot of people start to come over to our side.”
It all sounds rather intriguing, and we know that with previous projects such as Parasite or Snowpiercer, Bong is incredibly effective at making films based around singular locations work, usually to great effect.
Whether Bong plans to move straight onto his horror after his promotional duties on Mickey 17 are wrapped up remains to be seen, but after being starved of a new Bong Joon-ho project for far too long, hopefully we’ll soon get two arriving in fairly short order.
Mickey 17 is in UK cinemas from the 7th March.
