Bong Joon Ho calls the upcoming Parasite series "something of great genius"
The director teamed up with Adam McKay for the follow-up series
Director Bong Joon Ho has high hopes for the Parasite series currently in production at HBO. At the Cannes Film Festival, Bong shared that the television adaptation will exist within the same world as the film (our capitalistic one), but it will involve a different set of characters in a different country. This time, Bong will transport viewers to the United States.
“Parasite is a film on wealthy and poor families, and that is a problem everywhere,” Bong says. “[The television series] will be something of great genius, I hope. I worked with Adam McKay and he’s figuring out the scenario. We’re going to do it in the United States.”
“The subject continues to have resonance in France and elsewhere,” Bong continues. “Many of [us] would like to be rich, but I think in all of us there is a fear of becoming poor. I’m involved in the HBO adaptation [of Parasite]. It will be a black comedy. I’m working in close cooperation with screenwriter McKay. This time I’m giving my input as a producer.”
Parasite unanimously won the historic Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2019, and made history as the first foreign-language movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
The director also shared new details about his forthcoming first fully animated feature film. Bong revealed that the film is “inspired by a French scientific book that [his] wife bought and brought home. The pictures of the sea creatures were extraordinary. After that [his] imagination took over.”
The director found inspiration in Claire Nouvian’s 2007 book, The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss. He explains, “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.” The CGI animation tale will dive into a conflict between sea creatures and human beings.
Nouvian’s book features more than 200 color photographs of different deep sea creatures—some photographed for the very first time. The Deep combines the images with explanation from researchers that examine the biology of deep-sea organisms, the ecology of deep-sea habitats, and the history of deep-sea exploration. So these will be no Little Mermaid sea critters in Bong’s film, but wild looking and potentially nightmarish deep seal ghouls.
According to ScreenDaily, Bong plans on making an English-language live-action film before releasing the animated film, which he first started working on in 2018. Five whole years away, only for you Bong Joon Ho!