Oscar-winning director Bong Joon Ho is making significant progress on his first animated feature, which is now “halfway done”.
Seo Woo-sik, CEO of Barunson C&C, shared the update with The Korea Herald on the sidelines of Red Sea International Film Festival.
Barunson C&C is headed by Seo Woo-sik, the veteran producer behind Bong’s Mother and Okja, who is collaborating with the filmmaker once again on his latest project. While details remain scarce, the film is known to explore the connection between deep-sea creatures and humans, inspired by Claire Nouvian’s French novel The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss.
This marks the first major update since Bong himself referenced the project in March at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards, where he mentioned sketching storyboards in his hotel room. Seo confirmed this, revealing that the auteur, renowned for his meticulous attention to detail, hand-drew the entire storyboard.
Bong began writing the screenplay in 2018 and is known to have completed it in early 2021. Earlier this year, it was reported that the project would receive an unprecedented budget of around $50m (KRW70bn), making it the most expensive Korean film to date.
The fully CG-animated feature will also reunite Bong with longtime collaborators, including Seoul-based VFX studio 4th Creative Party and cinematographer Hong Kyung-po (Parasite, Burning).
Although many know Bong’s debut film to be White Man (1994), his first ever production was a stop-motion short, Looking For Paradise, made during his university days with the Yellow Door film club. Bong has since expressed a desire to revisit animation, making this project a meaningful return to the medium.
Production reportedly began this summer, though the release date has yet to be set.
The filmmaker’s next release will be sci-fi comedy Mickey 17, starring Robert Pattinson, which is set for release in April.
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