Auteur Gets $50 Million and Creative Freedom
Following the global success of
Snowpiercer (2013),
BONG Joon-ho is preparing to return with another major picture which will once again bring Korean and foreign talent together. Already featuring a cast comprising Tilda Swinton, Jake Gyllenhaal, Bill Nighy, Paul Dano and Kelly MacDonald, his new title
Okja has now gained a new investor in online streaming giant Netflix and a co-producer with Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner’s production company Plan B Entertainment (
12 Years a Slave).
The new partnership with Netflix, which is kicking off Asian film productions (starting with next year’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2) and will begin streaming operations in Korea next year, will give BONG a USD 50 million budget and control over final cut. In a statement released by Okja SPC, a production company of Okja, BONG said “For Okja, I needed a bigger budget than I had for Snowpiercer and also complete creative freedom. Netflix offered me the two conditions that are difficult to have in hand simultaneously.”
The film will follow the friendship between a mild-mannered beast named Okja and a young Korean woman, who will be cast following an open audition. Filming gets underway in April 2016 in New York and Korea with a release anticipated in the first half of 2017.