The film world had been waiting with bated breath for news on South Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho’s next film, after 2019’s record-breaking, Oscar-winning ‘Parasite’. And then, when news of the director’s next arrived, fans of Bong Joon-ho were quite obviously delighted.
For those who don’t know, Bong Joon-ho’s next is a sci-fi film. The director had announced it back in January, 2022. Sci-fi is a genre that sits comfortably with Bong Joon-ho’s talent as a director. The as-yet-untitled film is an adaptation of Edward Ashton’s well-received novel, ‘Mickey7’. The novel was launched in February 2022. But Bong Joon-ho had already decided to adapt it into his next film, much before the first copies of Mickey7 were out in the market.
In the latest news doing the rounds, Bong Joon-ho is on a casting spree for his upcoming film. He’d already signed on ‘The Batman’ star Robert Pattinson for his ambitious sci-fi endeavour. Now comes word that Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette and Naomi Ackie have joined the cast of the Mickey7 film. That’s quite a talented foursome that Bong Joon-ho has already in place as the cast of his film.
Mickey7 is an inter-planetary sci-fi drama, set in the backdrop of an icy planet called Niflheim. Human expendables are sent on expeditions to the frozen world, in order to colonise the alien planet. The expendables die multiple deaths, only to be cloned into new beings, with their original memories and personalities intact. Mickey7 is one such human expendable, presumed to be dead, who is caught in an unexpected situation with his clone, Mickey8.
Robert Pattinson will play the lead in the Warner Bros. film. There’s no clarity on the roles of the newly announced cast members yet. Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment is also producing Bong Joon-ho’s film, alongside Warner Bros.