FreebieMNL - Director Bong Joon-Ho bares details about HBO’s ‘Parasite’ series spinoff

Director Bong Joon-Ho bares details about HBO’s ‘Parasite’ series spinoff

FreebieMNL - Director Bong Joon-Ho bares details about HBO’s ‘Parasite’ series spinoff
(Image: Getty/David Swanson)

The high off Parasite’s historic win the 2019’s Academy Awards hasn’t quite left off yet. Not long after it bagged Best Picture during that year’s ceremony, we caught wind that South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho and HBO shook hands for a television series adaptation of his Palme d’Or-winning social thriller. Bong also spent much of his time during the pandemic with the brain behind the HBO’s Emmy-winning series “Succession” Adam McKay, who told Collider that the two are “having the best time.”

The last bit of news we’ve heard about the series came from McKay’s direction, who revealed last April that HBO’s adaptation of the South Korean film will not be a remake but an “original story that lives in the same world.” 

Now, speaking to the media during his career-spanning master class at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Bong revealed that the series will be a black comedy produced in the United States. He also provided a picture of how and where he figures in the creation of it all.

“[The series adaptation] 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.” Bong told the media at Cannes. “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.”

“The subject continues to have resonance in France and elsewhere. Many of [us] would like to be rich, but I think in all of us there is a fear of becoming poor.”

It was back in January 2020 when Bong revealed why he wants to extend Parasite into a TV series, his reason being that the feature never really got to flesh out all the stories he wanted to tell. ““[The ideas are all] stored in my iPad and my goal with this limited series is to create a six-hour-long film.”

“For example, when the original housekeeper Mun Gwang (Lee Jung Eun) comes back in the late night, something happened to her face,” he said. “Even her husband asked about it, but she never answered. I know why she had the bruises on her face. I have a story for that, and aside from that, why does she know the existence of this bunker? What relationship does she have with that architect to know of this bunker? So I have all these hidden stories that I have stored.”

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(Image: Allstar/Cruzon Artificial Eye)

During his Cannes stint, Bong also talked more about his upcoming animated film, which was first revealed last May, the script of which he just finished writing January this year. “[It is] 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 book he’s referring to as the basis of his deep-sea-adventure animated film is Claire Nouvian’s The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss, published in 2007. “The underwater colors are absolutely splendid. The starting point was the book. The story and animation flows from it,” he added.

Bong’s upcoming animated film is set to come out in 2025 at the earliest.

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