'Parasite' likely to be remade into drama series on HBO

SEOUL, Jan. 10 (Yonhap) -- Bong Joon-ho's sensational thriller "Parasite" will be made into a TV series on U.S. premium cable channel HBO, the film's production house said Friday.

"Director Bong and Adam McKay will participate in the project as executive producers, with HBO," said an official from the film's investor-distributor CJ ENM. The film won the top prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

"We've almost reached an agreement on the production of the series based on 'Parasite,'" the official said.

Adam McKay is an American filmmaker and screenwriter who directed "The Big Short" (2015) and "Vice" (2018). And HBO is a pay TV channel under the wing of WarnerMedia Entertainment, famous for smash hit series of "Game of Thrones" and "Chernobyl."

But CJ ENM said nothing has been decided yet on whether the series will be a remake or a spinoff, who will write the screenplay and who will direct the series.

"Details will be discussed after the Academy Awards in February," the official said.

"Parasite" has been in the center of fierce competition for a dramatization project since Bong hinted at the possibility of a U.S. remake last year.

It will become his second flick to be dramatized in the U.S., following a TV series adaptation of his 2013 feature, "Snowpiercer," based on a French graphic novel, scheduled to premier on TNT this spring.

The family satire on haves and have-nots has continued to garner praise and accolades in the ongoing U.S. awards season in the runup to the Oscars. It won the best foreign language film prize at the Golden Globes on Sunday to become the first South Korean movie to win a prize at the awards given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

brk@yna.co.kr
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