During the 2024 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, Bong Joon-ho was a presenter and revealed that he’s actively developing an anime movie in Japan. The South Korean filmmaker added that he had spent the whole day before the ceremony in his hotel room, drawing storyboards for the project.
We had already reported, just last month, that Bong was going to direct a Korean animated film right after post-prod work was done on his much-delayed “Mickey 17.” In development since 2018, his animated film, tackling sea creatures, is set to become the most expensive Korean film ever made — the cost, translated into USD, would be that of around $52 million.
Are the Korean and Japanese projects the same film? Has Bong had enough of live-action that he’s now decided to primarily focus on animation? We’re not entirely sure what the deal is with his $150 million costing “Mickey 17,” it’s now, supposedly, being released in January 2025 with reports stating that Warner Bros were not that enthusiastic about the film.
Bong is known for critically-acclaimed films such as “Snowpiercer,” “Mother” “The Host,” and “Memories of Murder.” He hasn’t released a film since his Palme d’Or and Oscar-winning film “Parasite,” which was released in 2019.
Clockwork — Warner Bros’ A24-style indie labels— has new films from Sean Baker, Park Chan-wook, Noah Baumbach and Sean Penn set to enter production in 2027.