Acclaimed Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook (“Oldboy”) has revealed that his latest movie, “No Other Choice” starring Lee Byung-hun and Son Yejin was originally planned to be an American English-language adaptation of the Donald Westlake book “The Ax,” but when he couldn’t find an American studio partner to help fund the project it was ultimately morphed in a Korean film instead. The filmmaker said he recently said that he was considering adding those studios that rejected the project in the credits for the “special thanks” portion.
“In the credits, when you see the special thanks section, I almost considered putting in the American studios that turned me down, but I didn’t,” Park said on the Contenders Film: Los Angeles stage (via Deadline).”At the time, I had no other choice but to change this into a Korean film,” Park Chan-wook admitted. “Thanks to that decision, I was able to work with such a great actor, so I really view it as a blessing today.”
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It doesn’t stop with “No Other Choice” (you can read The Playlist‘s review right here from our coverage during the recent Venice Film Festival) as Chan-wook is also still having trouble getting the money for two other film ideas he’s been kicking around, as mentioned by the outlet, as he has other English/American project ideas that would see him exploring both Western and sci-fi genres. Although we don’t exactly have details on those would-be cinematic stories, we’d certainly be along for the ride to see exactly what he wants to do there.
NEON is going to be distributing “No Other Choice,” so there is a tiny chance the studio could continue its working relationship with the director in the future (these American genre projects could be tempting to pursue for speciality outfits like NEON and A24, just speculation), but it remains to be seen if NEON has interest in bankrolling these two American projects the director is teasing. That said, they’ll be releasing the film in select theaters on Christmas and then will expand to a wide release in January.
Wild to think that an auteur moviemaker like Park Chan-wook is having trouble bankrolling his ideas, but that seems to be a commonplace narrative in the modern world of theatrical efforts, as we keep hearing from well-established directors experiencing headaches in the quest to get the funds they need to get their productions in front of cameras.
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