Last year, while his much-delayed “Mickey 17” was already in the can, Bong Joon-ho began production on an animated feature.
The project is reportedly the most expensive production in Korean film history, with costs—translated into USD—estimated at around $60M. Sony Pictures is rumored to be circling the film with plans for a worldwide release.
Bong has now given us an update on this still untitled project, telling Variety that the film, which he calls a “dream” project, will be released in 2027.
“I’m in the middle of a crazy animation production. It’s very wild and tough job. Even this morning I worked in my hotel room. It’s very hard work,” he said.
According to Bong, quoted in prior interviews, the story is set in Simahe, a dark and gloomy place, with “cute but very lonely characters.” Apparently, Bong hand-drew the entire storyboard for the animated film, which is loosely inspired by Claire Nouvian’s French novel “The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss.”
Werner Herzog recently joined the voice cast of Bong’s hand-drawn animated feature. The film is said to explore deep-sea creatures and the relationship between marine life and humans. That said, the filmmaker insists he wants to keep the story secret.
Bong has been working on the screenplay since 2018. The script was completed in January 2021. “Parasite” and “Burning” cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo will be in charge of the visual lighting.
Bong released “Mickey 17” in March. He previously stated (via MBC Korea) that once post-production wrapped, he was likely to follow the untitled animated project with a horror-action film set in an underground subway in Seoul. That one will be live-action.
Bong has described the project as a story he has been passionately pursuing for almost 25 years, and one similar in scale to 2006’s “The Host.”
It’s now been 13 years since "The Grandmaster,” and it doesn’t sound like Wong Kar-wai will be making another film in the near future. His future seems to be on the small screen.