This image file is a movie poster for film The Axe. [Courtesy of Mars Distribution]
SEOUL -- As his lifelong project, Park Chan-wook, one of South Korea's most acclaimed directors, will remake an English version of "The Axe", a 2005 comedy film by Costa-Gavras, a Greek-French film director and producer.
"There's a movie I'm going to make as my lifelong project," Park said in an open talk at the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) in the southern port city of Busan. "I'm going to make an English film," the South Korean director said, adding that Costa-Gavras, 86, and his wife have become producers of Park's film.
"I want to make it as my representative movie," Park said. The 2005 film is an adaptation of the 1997 novel, "The Ax", by Donald E. Westlake, that describes desperate attempts by a 39-year-old laid-off worker to get back on his feet by killing competitors who are more qualified than him.
Costa-Gavras, is known for films with overt political themes such as political thrillers Z (1969) and Missing (1982), for which he won an Academy Award for best-adapted screenplay. Park said Costa-Gavras' films are "so diverse and transformative."
Park, best known for Joint Security Area (2000), Thirst (2009), and The Handmaiden (2016), said he had liked "Missing" he watched when he graduated from college. He said the portrayal of atrocities committed under the Chilean military dictatorship overlapped a lot with South Korea's political situation at that time.
Park has been known as "The Vengeance Trilogy" which consists of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003) and Lady Vengeance (2005), as well as his English-language works Stoker (2013) and The Little Drummer Girl (2018), a television miniseries based on the novel of the same name by John le Carré.
Park's films have gained notoriety for their immaculate framing, black humor and often brutal subject matters.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
