Letterboxd heads went wild when it was revealed that Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning movie Parasite was being adapted by HBO into a TV series, overseen by Succession’s Adam McKay. The original announcement came with the added promise of director Bong’s regular collaborator Tilda Swinton joining the cast, but she’s just announced that she’ll be parting ways with the project.
Originally expected to lead the series alongside Mark Ruffalo, the latte art-obsessed Tilda told Variety at a recent screening of her A24 ghost story The Eternal Daughter that “I don’t think I’ll be a part of it, but I’m very happy to be a cheerleader”.
Bong has been developing an English-language limited series for HBO since January 2020, spending much of lockdown adapting his multiple-Oscar-winning social satire. But, as Adam told Collider in April of last year, the HBO series is not going to simply be a remake of Parasite. Rather it will be an original story set in the same universe, playing out like a six hour film. We haven’t heard any updates on the show since then.
“Parasite is a film on wealthy and poor families, and that is a problem everywhere,” said director Bong to Indiewire last year. “[The television series] will be something of great genius, I hope. I worked with Adam McKay and he’s figuring out the [script]. We’re going to do it in the United States.”
“The subject continues to have resonance in France and elsewhere,” he added. “Many of [us] would like to be rich, but I think in all of us there is a fear of becoming poor.” Director Bong then went on to explain his involvement as a producer in the HBO adaptation — which he said would be a “black comedy”.
Instead of helming the Parasite reboot, director Bong is hard at work on his next feature, and English language sci-fi Mickey7 starring our faves Robert Pattinson and Steven Yeun. Swirling rumours stated that the film was set to start shooting in August of this year in London at Warner Bros studios, but we’ve had no confirmation of that. While the Parasite TV show might be still in production, we might have a new Bong Joon-ho project in 2023.
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