Like many international filmmakers, South Korea’s Bong Joon-ho has flirted with the American film industry a number of times. While he has yet to sign on for some sort of big-budget tentpole superhero film, the filmmaker has earned a sizeable following outside of his home country, thanks to his strong filmography. And according to Bong, he’s definitely had the chance to tackle something much bigger outside of South Korea, if he was willing to.
Speaking to Deadline, while in Cannes to premiere his upcoming “Parasite,” Bong Joon-ho went over a couple of times that he’s dipped his toes in Hollywood, turning down big-name projects and dealing with a certain studio mogul that is the source of tons of controversy. And somehow, through it all, the director has stayed on his own unique path.
“After ‘The Host’ was screened at the Cannes and Toronto Film Festival I got an American agent and I received many offers from Korea, America, and even China, mostly to make sequels or remakes of ‘The Host,’” said the director.
He continued, “But I was determined that I didn’t want to repeat myself; I didn’t want to make another monster film. Around that time I was offered a zombie movie, which turned out to be ‘World War Z.’ There were some other monster films, but I can’t really remember their names.”
Of course, we know that Bong wouldn’t go on to make another monster movie. Instead, the filmmaker followed “The Host” up with “Mother” and then, “Snowpiercer,” which earned him the most recognition of his career. However, “Snowpiercer” wasn’t the easiest film to work on, said the director.
In fact, he said the biggest problem during the production of that post-apocalyptic film was none other than Harvey Weinstein.
“I completed the film to budget and right on schedule,” Bong revealed. “So completing the film was OK, and it was a hit in Korea, but we were distributing the film in America through The Weinstein Company.”
He added, “I’ve always worked with my own director’s cut, and Harvey is very notorious for editing his films. So there was some conflict between the distribution company and myself. But anyway—finally—I protected my own director’s cut. The movie that was released in the U.S. was my own final cut. It was a very limited release, and maybe that was some kind of punishment, but I didn’t care.”
Before “Parasite,” Bong Joon-ho released “Okja,” a Netflix original film, which gained notoriety for playing that year’s Cannes. This premiere, of course, paved the way to the ongoing fight between Netflix and the festival, as well as the recent discussion of streaming versus theatrical release.
When asked about this, Bong doesn’t offer any insight. In fact, he said that it’s not his place.
“Well, I think that there should be a drive for coexistence between film theaters and Netflix, but as a film director, as a creator, my job is to make films, not to worry about this controversy,” admitted the filmmaker.
As mentioned, Bong Joon-ho is at Cannes right now premiering his new family drama/thriller “Parasite.”