Anna Daniels
Update: In a piece for Variety reflecting on her experience interpreting for Bong Joon-ho over the past several months, Sharon Choi says she is not, in fact, writing a movie about awards season. Here’s an excerpt:
Empathy bridges the gap between the perpetual “others.” And to feel a little less lonely is why I want to be a storyteller. And no, I am not writing a feature on the awards season. This is a deeply personal experience I’ve yet to process, and it will find another time to seep into my stories. The one I am writing about is a small story set in Korea that’s close to my heart because, as director Bong quoted the sincere words of Martin Scorsese, “the personal is the most creative.”
You can read the entire piece here. Our original article follows.
Sharon Choi has been along for Parasite‘s wild ride for months, from it unanimously winning the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival to its historic win at last night’s Academy Awards. The 25-year-old aspiring filmmaker has been serving as Parasite co-writer/director Bong Joon-ho’s interpreter this entire time, and now a new report says that Choi is currently writing a feature length script set during awards season. Count me in.
The Wrap reporter Steve Pond, who was covering the Oscars from the ground last night, evidently spoke with Choi and got the scoop about the script she’s working on:
Bong Joon Ho’s translator, Sharon Choi, is a director. When awards season ends (i.e., tomorrow), she says she wants to start making a movie … about awards season.
— Steve Pond (@stevepond) February 10, 2020
Backstage at the Oscars, Bong Joon-ho confirmed to reporters that Sharon Choi is indeed writing an original screenplay: “You already know she’s a filmmaker. And she studied film in the university, yeah, so I’m so curious about her script,” he said. “Actually, she’s writing some feature-length script, I’m so curious about it.”
As for Director Bong’s immediate future, Yahoo (via Indiewire) has a quote from the filmmaker about his plans:
“I have to work, it’s my job. So I’ve been working for the past 20 years, and regardless what happened at Cannes and Oscars, I had been working on two projects before then, I’m continuing to work on them, nothing has changed because of these awards. One is in Korean and one is in English.”
One of those projects may be a Parasite television series for HBO, which he’s developing alongside Succession executive producer (and occasional director) Adam McKay. Bong had previously hinted that the Parasite series would fill in the gaps of the story told in the movie, but a new report this morning indicated that Mark Ruffalo may be in contention for one of the lead roles, so the scope of that series seems a bit hazy right now.
Hollywood will undoubtedly be interested in whatever Bong does next after his thrilling success at last night’s Oscars ceremony, but I’m personally hoping he might also be able to use his newfound clout to help Sharon Choi get her movie made, because I’m curious about her perspective on awards season as someone who’s seen it from the inside. It seems like there’s lots of potential to be mined from that seemingly never-ending list of awards shows, parties, galas, dinners, and meet-and-greets, especially if it follows a compelling character – say, an interpreter for a hotshot international director? We’ll keep you posted as soon as we hear more.
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