Netflix Is Spending $50 Million For the Next Movie From Bong Joon-ho

Netflix just keeps getting bigger and more ambitious.

Their first foray into fiction filmmaking, Beasts of No Nation, was made for a reported budget of $6 million. Now, via Variety, comes word that they’ve committed almost ten times that amount to a single film: Okja, the next movie from Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho, whose last picture was the cult hit Snowpiercer. That film cost a reported $40 million and made over $80 million worldwide (though just $4.5 million here in the United States).

According to Deadline, Netflix will hand Bong $50 million to make Okja, which Variety describes as a monster movie about a “beast that is not that beastly.” Here’s Bong’s description of the film:

The film is about a warm friendship between a country girl and a brute with stories. To me, the crazy world surrounding Okja and the girl looks more like a monster. I want to depict the two characters’ bizarre journey and adventure across the tough world in an original fashion.

Bong also noted that he “needed a bigger budget than [he] had for Snowpiercer and also complete creative freedom,” and that Netflix was the rare place where he could find those two things simultaneously. He (and Netflix) are also getting an impressive cast for their money: Jake Gyllenhaal, Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Bill Nighy, and Kelly Macdonald. Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company will co-produce the film with Netflix, which is currently expanding its streaming service into Asia. South Korea’s Netflix is supposed to launch in 2016, and this announcement will surely drive subscriptions. As a big fan of Snowpiercer, it’s certainly got this subscriber excited as well.

Okja is scheduled to go into production next year for a release some time in 2017.