After accepting four Oscars forParasite, including Best Picture and Best Director, it’s safe to say thatBong Joon Hois the toast of the town. Everyone in Hollywood wants to work with Bong, so to say he’s in high demand right now would be an understatement.
Bong recently revealed that he’spreparing two projectsat the moment. “One is a Korean-language one, and the other one is an English-language one,“explained the filmmaker. “Both projects are not big films. They’re the size ofParasiteorMother. The Korean film is located in Seoul and has unique elements of horror and action. It’s difficult to define the genre of my films. The English project is a drama film based on a true event that happened in 2016.”
I’m glad it sounds like we won’t have to wait too long for Bong’s next project, whatever it may be. But his statement made me curious. If Bongdiddecide to make a “big film,” what might that look like? Which development projects would studios even offer him? And what is it about those projects that might appeal to him?
Now, obviously, Bong has no shortage of original ideas himself, so there’s no guarantee he’ll ever tackle a studio assignment since he has always generated his own material. But nonetheless, we came up with 10 high-profile projects that we’d love to see Bong direct, since it’s inevitable that Hollywood is going to gauge his interest regarding studio tentpoles. Sometimes, those nine-figure budgets are a unique creative challenge unto themselves, so we tried to keep our choices semi-realistic. Feel free to chime in with your own picks in the comments section below, and stay tuned to Collider for more onBong’s HBO seriesbased onParasite.
Strangers on a Train
WithParasite, Bong was called a modern day Hitchcock, and wouldn’t it be fascinating to see him put his spin on one of the master’s most cherished classics, which will inevitably be remade, whether we like it or not.Gus Van Santalready remadePsycho, and remakes ofThe BirdsandTo Catch a Thiefare in the works at Universal and Paramount, respectively. Meanwhile, Warner Bros.has been developing a rebootofStrangers on a Trainfor the last five years. It was initially announced as aDavid Fincherproject starringBen Affleck, but we think Bong would be a great choice, and there’s a lot to this story and its themes of class for him to explore. Affleck is slated to play a movie star in the middle of an Oscar campaign whose private plane breaks down, so he hops on another plane owned by a wealthy stranger with a unique proposal for him. That premise sounds Bongalicious to me. And speaking of Fincher…
World War Z 2
Can you imagine Bong Joon Ho taking the reins of this long-delayedzombie sequel? After all, he spent a lot of time on the awards campaign trail this fall alongside Brad Pitt… maybe they got to chatting? Paramount was excited about the script they had, the problem was that Fincherwouldn’t compromise on the budget, and when he walked, Pitt’s own enthusiasm took a hit. But if Paramount could entice Bong to take the director’s chair, Pitt might change his tune, and I bet Bong could deliver a high-quality sequel while keeping the budget from spiraling out of control. There’s a lot he could examine as far as capitalism goes, all under the guise of a smart genre movie.
I hate to keep giving Fincher’s leftovers to Bong –Black HoleandRendezvous with Ramawere also in contention for this list – but we’re still not finished with Fincher yet! Back in the day, he was planning adapt the acclaimed graphic novel fromBrian Michael BendisandMarc AndreykowithMatt Damonset to star, thoughDavid Lowerytook the reinsabout seven years ago. Since then, it’s been quiet… too quiet. The thing is, if you look at the entertainment landscape these days,Torsowould clearly work best as a limited series. The story followsEliot Nessas he hunts a serial killer who has been leaving behind bodies all over Cleveland. The idea of Bong tackling a serial killer thriller set in middle America with an iconic figure like Ness at its center is a tantalizing possibility, so even though Bong is already prepping a limited series withAdam McKay, another one couldn’t hurt, so long as it’s this one – which is almost sure to lure an A-list lead as Ness.
I Am Legend reboot
I Am Legendis one of the highest-grossing movies in Warner Bros.' storied history, and the studio has spent years trying to reboot the franchise, since – spoiler alert! –Will Smithdies at the end of the first film. Is there a way to continue that story, or does it make more sense to start anew? We’d like to think that Bong Joon Ho would have a few ideas regarding the next chapter in this would-be franchise.
The Hunger Games prequel
I know, I know, but hear me out. This bestselling book series is about kids who are selected via lottery to participate in a compulsory death match called the Hunger Games. If Bong Joon Ho was ever going to direct a YA movie, wouldn’t it be something super dark and messed up like that?Suzanne Collins' prequel novel, titledThe Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, is due out on May 19. It is said to take place 64 years before the start of the original Hunger Games novels, andcenter around President Snow as a young man.
“With this book, I wanted to explore the state of nature, who we are, and what we perceive is required for our survival,” Collins said in a statement. “The reconstruction period ten years after the war, commonly referred to as the Dark Days — as the country of Panem struggles back to its feet — provides fertile ground for characters to grapple with these questions and thereby define their views of humanity.” Humanity is ever-present in Bong’s work, and there’s certainly plenty to explore regarding themes of class, which has become the director’s trademark of sorts.
The Devil in the White City
Before Bong became the Oscar-winning director ofParasite, he was known first and foremost as the director ofMemories of Murder, the acclaimed serial killer thriller. There are several serial killer projects in the works around town that might appeal to Bong –The Monster of FlorenceatGeorge Clooney’s Smokehouse,The Boston Stranglerat WB, The Shining Girls atLeonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way, theAmerican Psychoreboot at Lionsgate – butThe Devil in the White Citymay be the most prestigious of all of them. The book follows the architect of the 1893 World’s Fair andDr. H.H. Holmes, the serial killer who uses it to lure women to their deaths. The story is decidedly American, but no one has been able to crack it yet, so a fresh approach may be just what the doctor called for. This one is also in development at Appian Way as a TV series, and thoughMartin Scorsesehas been attached to direct, he’s moving on toKillers of the Flower Moonwith Leo, so he may be inclined to let someone else take a stab at the material, especially Bong, whom he befriended this past awards season.
Universal is a studio that could also use Bong Joon Ho. The studio would love to reboot the Jason Bourne franchise, but that seems too easy for Bong. No, if he was going to make a spy-driven action movie, he should go afterMission: Impossible 9or the next James Bond movie that will see the character recast. But even then, he’d be working within strict confines. So long asTom Cruiseis playing Ethan Hunt, he’ll always call the shots on that franchise, and the same goes for Bond producersBarbara BroccoliandMichael G. Wilson. No… if Bong wanted to truly put his own stamp on something, he should take a look atSection 6over at Universal, about the World War I-era formation of British intelligence agency MI6 and its first director, who served as the inspiration for M in the Bond franchise.Joe Cornishdeveloped the project for years, to no avail. The project was caught up in some legal trouble with MGM, but assuming that has all been worked out, a Bong Joon Ho riff on a Bond movie would be very, very cool.
The Creature from the Black Lagoon
It seems like a no-brainer for Universal to try and recruit Bong for a movie based on one of its classic monsters. The studio is letting filmmakers do what they want, so if Bong sparked toVan HelsingorThe Bride of Frankenstein, I’m sure they’d love him to pitch an original take on those characters. I simply pickedThe Creature from the Black Lagoonbecause I think it’d one of Universal’s lesser-known monsters, so there’s more room for Bong to create his own creature, something he did once before forThe Host. Something tells me he’d be the right fit for that project.
I doubt Bong wants to do a superhero movie, but if he did, he could do a whole lot worse than working with two-time Oscar winnerMahershala Ali.Bladerepresents a unique opportunity, as the character has yet to be introduced to the MCU, though audiences are familiar with him thanks to theWesley Snipestrilogy from 20 years ago. Little is known about the direction thatKevin Feigeplans to take the character, but if he was ever going to land an Oscar-winning filmmaker like Bong, this might be the movie.
Justice League Dark
Here’s one I’ll bet you forgot about, because I sure did! When I went into our backend to look for photos of Bong for this story, I found a split of him andJ.J. Abrams. A quick Google search brought me tothis article, which says that Abrams met with Bong in South Korea in 2010, and the two of them planned to collaborate together on a project that Bong would direct and Abrams would produce. Obviously, nothing has come to fruition yet, but with Abrams and his Bad Robot banner signing a megadeal with WarnerMedia, they’re in a strong position to muscle projects through the pipeline.Wunderkindfollows Nazi hunters in the 70s, so I think Jordan Peele’s new Amazon series took a bit of air out of that one.Zanbatois an idea thatGuillermo del Torohas developed for years, so I don’t see Bad Robot just handing that one over to Bong.
Personally, my vote would be to see Bong’s take onBoilerplate, about a robot’s adventures through history, but there are two other Bad Robot projects that might generate considerably more excitement – the nextStar Trekmovie orJustice League Dark. Even though part of me thinks Bong would rather do something unrelated to Marvel or DC, like The Crow or The Toxic Avenger, the other part thinks that if Bong did do a comic book movie, he’d gravitate towards something like Justice League Dark. Bong has previously said he respects comic book movies, but he isn’t sure he’d want to direct one himself because he can’t stand the tight clothing they wear. At least withJustice League Dark, he’d be able to play with the costumes more than, say, Batman, Superman or Spider-Man…
For more on Bong’s thoughts regarding comic book movies and whether they qualify as “cinema,“click here.
