While chatting with “Oldboy” director Park Chan-Wook about his upcoming, absolutely insane new thriller “Stoker” — which I personally loved despite our review — I had to ask him what was next. After becoming an established force in the South Korean film industry with his idiosyncratic, stylish genre films, lauded ‘Vengeance’ trilogy, and now making (incredibly weird) inroads in America, we were curious as to where his career was headed next. As it turns out, while he doesn’t have his next project totally lined up, he did reveal that he has another American, English-Language feature in the works, and did disclose some genres he’d like to tackle. He also updated us on the hotly anticipated “Snowpiercer,” his next effort as a producer, directed by fellow South Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho.
The filmmaker said he has an idea in development for another American-set film that could be next, but that “it’s not ready to be announced.” And while he couldn’t provide specifics on what this film would be, he did say that, while “Stoker” was an incredibly feminine film, for his follow-up he’s like to do the opposite. “I’d like to do a really masculine film,” he said, noting later in the interview that “Stoker” was a companion piece to “I’m A Cyborg, But That’s OK” and that he’d one day like to finish his “female coming-of-age trilogy.”
When we asked if there were any particularly “western” genres he’d like to tackle, he said, “yes – definitely.” When we brought up the possibility of doing big-budget superhero movies, the filmmaker said he wasn’t interested. “I’d love to do a sci-fi movie, a western, or an espionage thriller. But I’m not going to limit myself. If a good script comes along, I’m not going to discount it because it doesn’t fit into one of these genres.”
A project that we’re keenly interested in that Park has a hand in as well is Bong Joon-ho’s aforementioned upcoming English-language debut, “Snowpiercer,” a based-on-a-French-comic-book epic set in a post-apocalyptic world where civilization now exists on a series of jumbo-sized train cars. Park said, “Bong is actually in Los Angeles right now, finishing up the music and the visual effects.” He described the movie as, “A very unique and powerful sci-fi action thriller.” Starring Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton and Jamie Bell among many others, that film has no release date yet, but is expected later this summer.