Bong Joon-ho

TNT’s Snowpiercer is officially rolling forward. The new TV series adaptation of Bong Joon-ho’s 2013 cult classic at last has a series order, based on the strength of its Scott Derrickson-directed pilot.

Bong Joon-ho’s Okja is something truly special. A take-down of the food industry and powerful corporations, the South Korean filmmaker’s latest action-adventure has as much heart and humor as it has political commentary.

If you have a Netflix subscription, you have to watch this incredible movie about a girl and her super pig, starring Tilda Swinton and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Bong Joon-ho’s Okja is truly unlike any other movie you’ve seen. Sure, it’s got bits of Free Willy and maybe a touch of Charlotte’s Web, but it really needs to be seen to be believed. I guarantee you, you will fall in love with this super pig.

Bong Joon-ho’s latest just can’t catch a break. After surviving Cannes while plagued by talk of the scandal brewing between Netflix and French theater chains, 93% of theaters in Bong’s home country have announced they won’t be screening Okja because of Netflix’s same-day release plan.

Bong Joon-ho’s latest is going to hit Netflix in a few short weeks, and the buzz around it is already starting. Okja had a fantastic premiere at Cannes, despite the controversy over whether Netflix will give their films theatrical releases, and the promotion for its release is already gearing up. A new series of Korean character posters helpfully describe almost every cast member (the eponymous super pig is absent), and separates all their traits into loins, shanks, and prime cuts.

It’s not a Cannes Film Festival without a little bit of controversy. This year, Netflix has the hot potato, as the festival has practically torn itself in twain on the matter of the online streaming platform — to purists, they’re the barbarians at the multiplex gates, but to those in support, they’re deep-pocketed benefactors for such directors as Korea’s Bong Joon Ho. And after his new film Okja got nearly pulled from competition, allowed back in, unofficially rejected by Jury President Pedro Almodovar, and then booed following technical difficulties at the screening, Bong wanted to clear the air around Netflix.

Across the Atlantic, Will Smith and Pedro Almodovar may be jousting over Netflix’s place in the Cannes Film Festival – should a movie produced by the streaming empire be worthy of competing for the French festival’s coveted awards? Or should the Palme D’or only be granted to films with exclusive releases on the big screen? Whatever opinion you hold, Bong Joon-ho’s latest entry, Okja, is set to make its world premiere on the Croisette, and big screen or small, it looks pretty awesome.

Netflix is the future, that much seems beyond debate, but the shape of that future remains very much in flux. The video-streaming giant recently generated some friction with the Cannes Film Festival over the negotiation between theatrical runs and online releasing, a mini-controversy resolved with the edict that Netflix would have to set plans to get their movies into theaters if they want to be included at Cannes moving forward. 2017’s shaping up to be a pivotal year for Netflix, as they prepare to debut more high-profile films than ever and continuously hash out a strategy for best doing that.

Those of you with an interest in the changing face of theatrical exhibition and film festival bylaws (there are dozens of us!) may have caught wind of some recent meshugas unfolding in France. This year’s main Competition slate at the Cannes Film Festival included two films from online-streaming giant Netflix, Bong Joon Ho’s creature feature Okja and Noah Baumbach’s singlehanded resurrection of Adam Sandler The Meyerowitz Stories. But there‘s been some consternation about opening the gates of Cannes to films that may never see release in France outside of the Internet. Is a movie that doesn’t play in a movie theater a movie at all?