Park Chan-wook Signs On For Body-Swapping Sci-Fi Thriller

If I was Korean director Park Chan-wook, I’m not sure I’d be too keen on making more American movies. His first one, the Hitchcockian suspense film ‘Stoker,’ made less than $2 million in the United States, and a little over $12 million worldwide. And last year, Spike Lee remade his 2003 cult classic ‘Oldboy’ and butchered it like a revenge-crazed man with a hammer. How are things going stateside for poor Park? Not great, Bob!

Hopefully today’s news in Variety is the first step to bringing Park the sort of success he had in Korea, where he directed terrific films like ‘Oldboy’ and ‘Thirst.’ The trade says Park has signed on to direct ‘Second Born’ for Rumble Films and David Lancaster, who produced ‘Whiplash,’ ‘Nightcrawler,’ and ‘Drive.’ Here’s the plot synopsis:

‘Second Born,’ based on an original screenplay by David Jagernauth, takes place in a futuristic world in which neural microchip implants are used to store one’s consciousness, leading to black market body-swapping.

So what we’re potentially looking at here is a Park sci-fi movie, which sounds great. Park’s a genre guy through and through, having already produced thoughtful takes on vampires and the revenge film (and the revenge film and the revenge film; it’s kind of a thing with him). There’s no casting at this point, as ‘Second Born’ is still in the early stages of development, but hopefully when it comes to the screen it turns Park’s domestic fortunes around.