South-Korean auteur Park Chan-Wook’s absurdist vampire romance film, “Thirst” came out earlier this summer, but didn’t exactly light-up the indie box-office circuit like most assumed. It made $318,574 domestically ($12 million worldwide), but those aren’t terrible U.S. numbers. Chan-Wook’s biggest U.S. film, “Oldboy” grossed some $700,000 domestically. Maybe it was those mixed Cannes reviews? Or perhaps it was because his last fillm, “I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK,” didn’t even receive U.S. distribution so that might have dulled his buzz as a rising international star somewhat.
Whatever the case, is the director already eyeing his next project?
According to Twitchfilm, Chan-Wook might next tackle a remake of Greek born French filmmaker Costa-Gavras’ 2005 film “Le Couperet (The Ax).” Best known for directing the 1969 political thriller, “Z” and the Chilean, post-Pincochet drama, “Missing,” in the 1980s, Gavras’ original is an adaptation of the novel The Ax by Donald E. Westlake and follows a downsized chemist who loses his job to outsourcing. Two years later and still jobless, he hits on a solution: to genuinely eliminate his competition. His methods? You can surely guess and they’re not pretty. Sounds like a pretty topical and relevant film idea.
Meanwhile, “Thirst” was around two and a half hours (or at least felt that long), but apparently the director is preparing an even longer cut. Sheesh, not a great idea, exorbitant length was part of the original problem Other projects in the works include, “Transperceneige,” a sci-fi blockbuster with shades of Noah’s Ark tones, that he will produce for director and fellow countryman, Bong Joon-Ho (“The Host,” “Mother”). Both projects sound awesome.