40th Sitges – Park Chan-wook Speaks on Bakjwi and The Snow Piercer (& 18 wallpaper images of him)

NEWS FLASH - PARK CHAN-WOOK DIDN’T STOP MAKING MOVIES TO BE AN ASTRONAUT.

Now that we have that cleared up…

BLAKE: What can you tell us about your next film Bakjwi?
PARK CHAN-WOOK: Bakjwi is the Korean word for “bat.” It will be a very very sad and tragic melodrama about a vampire who has fallen madly in love with a married woman. It will not be like a Batman type movie or a vampire horror film.

Right now there are two English titles for the film. One is just “Bat” and the other is “Evil Live.” I think “Evil Live” makes it sound too much like a horror film or something along the lines of “Batman-ish” type science fiction, so I will be coming out with a new English title, which I haven’t decided on just yet.

BLAKE: Any updates on the project your producing for Bong Joon-ho for the French sci-fi graphic novel Le Transperceneige?

PARK CHAN-WOOK: Yes we now have an English title for the film, which is "The Snow Piercer." It’s going to have international casting and probably be the biggest Korean film production ever. Our current plan is to start shooting it in 2010.

Currently we are at the beginning stages of working on the adaptation of the graphic novel into a film script. One of the most famous Korean sci-fi novelists is currently handling this for us.

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* Thanks to PiFan programmer Jin Hyung Park for stepping in to translate during this interview.