The newest huge cinematic name Netflix has taken under their wing — for a huge cinematic price — is South Korean director Bong Joon Ho. The company has, as The Hollywood Reporter announced today, made a $50 million dollar deal to find the Snowpiercer/The Host director’s latest project.
The film is called Okja — and it seems it will be an even bigger production than Snowpiercer (the amount of money Netflix alone is investing in the film surpasses Snowpiercer‘s budget by 8 million). In a statement, the director 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.
Allegedly, Plan B Entertainment — Brad Pitt’s company — is co-producing, which may indicate that Pitt is getting along swimmingly with Netflix after his own $60 dollar win from Netflix for the satirical war epic, War Machine.
According to The Wrap, Okja centers around the relationship between a “monster who has a kind spirit” and who shares a name with the title, and a young girl, who has not yet been cast. However, supporting roles have already been filled, and Tilda Swinton, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano and Bill Nighy, have already joined the project — with production beginning in 2016 in both South Korea and NYC, and release planned for 2017.
This is one of the first films the company has funded in Asia, following the series Marco Polo and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon II, which will be released February 8, 2016. The deal comes just in advance of Netflix’s planned extension of services to South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore in 2016.