Bong Joon Ho’s movie gets Netflix, Pitt’s Plan B backing
It really is a fantastic opportunity for me as a filmmaker. 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.
SEOUL: Streaming firm Netflix will invest US$ 50 million in upcoming South Korean film ‘Okja’ by Bong Joon Ho, according to local production company Okja SPC.
The film is one of the first features in Asia to be backed by the firm, which is in the process of launching services across the region. Netflix is expected to launch in Korea in 2016.
A Netflix spokesman declined to comment on any financials. The streaming giant’s biggest film bet to date is a US$ 60 million investment in the Brad Pitt military satire War Machine.
“It really is a fantastic opportunity for me as a filmmaker,” Bong said in a statement. “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,” he said.
‘Snowpiercer’, Bong’s first English-language film, by Korea’s CJ Entertainment (distributed in North America via Weinstein Company), was made for US$ 42 million and
Bong Joon Ho, director
remains one of the country’s most expensive productions to date.
According to Okja SPC, Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment has also come aboard to co-produce the film. The company headed by Pitt was behind ‘World War Z’ and ‘12 Years a Slave’, as well as ‘War Machine’. Netflix invested in the latter.
“I am looking forward to bringing in a mix of bold energy that has been unique to Plan B,” said Bong.
Meanwhile,
Tilda Swinton, who starred in ‘Snowpiercer’, is set to have a role in ‘Okja’. Other cast members include Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano and Bill Nighy.
Auditions are currently underway for a young actress to play the lead role in the story, about the friendship between a girl and an animal named ‘Okja’. Production is slated to begin in Korea and New York in late 2016 for a 2017 release.