Anna Daniels
Last week we were all caught off guard by the news that a Parasite series was headed to HBO. Despite the involvement of Parasite director Bong Joon-ho, many were skeptical about the project, with the addition of The Big Short director Adam McKay raising an eyebrow or two. The biggest question seemed to be: just what the hell is this? Is it going to be some sort of English-language remake of the movie, in series form? Is it a sequel? Now we have more info – from Bong Joon-ho himself.
We reported the news last week that HBO was moving ahead with a Parasite limited series – news that came with the disclaimer that it was ” unclear if the limited series will be some sort of follow-up to the movie or an English-language remake.” Now there’s more info. While speaking with Bong Joon-ho about the Academy Award nominations announced today, Deadline inquired about the Parasite series, and learned that the show would “expand the movie” and give the filmmaker a chance to include things he wasn’t able to fit into the runtime of the movie.
Bong stated:
“With Parasite, while I was writing the script I had so many more ideas I couldn’t convey into the two-hour running time of the film. I knew that if I had a longer running time, I would be able to tell these stories, and I that’s what I plan to talk about with Adam pretty soon…Though I’m not very familiar with the TV industry, I really consider this limited series an expanded film that can delve deeper into the stories that didn’t make it into Parasite. Adam McKay and HBO have created the amazing show Succession, so they’re very reliable and amazing partners to have.”
Bong added that it still hasn’t been decided if the show will be in English or Korean. As an example of what he might be trying to do here, Bong cited the Fanny and Alexander miniseries. Ingmar Bergman’s historical film from 1982 was originally conceived as a 312-minute miniseries. However, it was also edited into a 188-minute feature that was released in theaters before the miniseries aired.
I’ll admit that my knee-jerk reaction to this news last week was on the negative side, but I feel much better after these comments from Bong. He clearly is going to have a major hand in the story – it’s not going to be Adam McKay’s American Parasite remake, which is what I think so many people were worried about. In other words, we can all relax for a little while now.
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