Parasite at the 72nd Cannes International Film Festival 

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Bong Joonho appears to have set his sights on his next live-action feature. Bong is in talks to direct an adaption of Edward Ashton’s upcoming SF novel Mickey7, with Robert Pattinson in talks to play the leading role. The project is being set up at Warner Bros.

Mickey7, which will be published in February through the Macmillan imprint St. Martin, focuses on an ‘expendable’ named Mickey7, who joins a mission to colonize an ice planet called Niflheim. He takes on the dangerous tasks in the mission, and when he dies, he is regenerated in a new baby with his memories intact. After six deaths, it dawns on him why he was sent on the mission.

Bong became tentatively attached to the project late last year when he was presented with an unpublished manuscript of the book. Prior to the end of the year, he began meeting major actors in their 30s for the lead, with many A-list stars reportedly chasing the role. After being impressed with Pattinson, who will soon be seen in The Batman, another Warner Bros project, an offer was sent just before the New Year.

SF has long been an interest for Bong, who previously made SF titles such as The Host (2006), Snowpiercer (2013) and Okja (2017).

Director Bong, who will also produce the film through his company Offscreen alongside Choi Dooho of Kate Street Picture Company and Plan B, made history two years ago when his film Parasite (2019) became the first-ever foreign-language film to win the Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The landmark film also won the Oscars for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best International Film, in addition to the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the first Korean film to do so.

The in-demand filmmaker is also collaborating with Warner Bros as an executive producer on an HBO adaption of Parasite to be directed by Adam McKay and is currently developing an animated film with the Korean VFX production house 4th Creative Party, which is inspired by the French scientific novel The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss by Claire Nouvian and is expected in 2025 at the earliest.