Parasite director Bong Joon-ho clears up confusion over HBO series

Director also revealed series is ‘still very much in the early stages’

Parasite director Bong Joon-ho has clarified that the limited series based on his Oscar-nominated feature film will be an expansion and not a remake.

Following announcements that a limited series based on the acclaimed Korean thriller was in the works for HBO, fans on social media began to speculate about what the series woudl entail.

In an interview with Variety published on 13 January, the director assured fans that the limited-series would be an expansion of the feature film’s universe, as opposed to a remake.

“When I think of a limited series, I really think of it as an expanded film," he said. “I would like to actualise this attempt to expand this film and explore all the ideas that I’ve had from the script writing stage from what could happen in between the scenes through the TV series.”

The director praised Ingmar Bergman’s drama-fantasy Fanny and Alexander, drawing similarities to what he aimed to do with HBO for this project: “You have a three-hour theatrical version and a three-hour TV version. So my goal is to create a high quality expanded version of Parasite”.

Any details, however, are still undecided. “We’re still very much in the early stages. I’ll soon meet with Adam [McKay] to talk about the set-up”.

Bong is working with McKay to produce the series. The acclaimed director is behind the award-winning HBO series Succession, comedy-drama The Big Short, and the Dick Cheney biopic Vice.

Parasite made Oscars history this year as the first South Korean film to be nominated for Best Picture and Best International Film. Bong was also feted with Best Director, as well as Best Original Screenplay together with co-writer Han Jin Won.

HBO’s corporate sibling TNT are also in the long process of producing a TV adaptation of Bong’s previous feature film, Snowpiercer, although Bong himself is not attached.