Oscar- and Palm d’Or-winning South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho (Parasite, Okja, Snowpiercer, The Host) is set to begin production on his first animated feature film in the latter half of this year, and it is reported the untitled deep sea tale will set a new record in production costs for the Korean film industry.
The film’s budget is reportedly in the neighborhood of $52 million USD. Sony Pictures is rumored to be planning a worldwide release for the pic.
Bong is directing the movie, which will tell a story about the relationship between deep-sea fish (and other marine life) and humans. The filmmaker has shared that he intends to keep the plot details a secret after working on the screenplay from 2018 to 2021.
The fully CG-animated feature will be animated by 4th Creative Party (formerly EON Digital Films), based in Seoul. The studio has worked on previous Bong films, including Okja, Snowpiercer and Mother, as well as Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and Stoker, Park Hoon-jung’s The Tiger and many others. Cinematographer Hong Kyung-po (Parasite, Burning) will oversee the lighting.
Bong is also currently working on his next live-action film, Mickey 17 (based on the 2022 sci-fi novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton) starring Robert Pattinson. The filmmaker will reportedly be splitting his time between Korea and the U.S. over the next few months as he wraps post-production on the project, which was bumped from its March 2024 release date by Warner Bros. due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.
[Source: Daum via World of Reel]
