Neon has acquired North American rights to “no other choice”, next film from South Korean AUTEUR Park Chan-Wookannounced the distributor on Wednesday.
Parks 12th feature has been in the works for quite some time and only wrapped production in January, but we referred to the film anyway as a Stuck for Cannes lineup in May (Where he previously won the best director for “decision to leave” 2022), but a source tells IndieWire that the film is now expected to premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
“No other choice” stars Lee Byung-Hun, best known as The villain in “Squid Game,” And son Ye-Jin (“The Last Princess”) as a man and wife. After the man has suddenly been dismissed by the paper company where he worked tirelessly for many years, he is growing increasingly desperately in his hunt for new work. It is based on a 1997 novel by Donald Westlake called “The Ax”, and the film has been described as a dark comedy from the director who is known for “decision to leave”, “Oldboy”, “The Handmaiden” and the HBO series “The Sympathizer.”
The film’s ensemble role also includes Park Hee-Soon, Lee Sung-Min, Yeom Hye-Ran, Cha Seung-Won and Yoo Yeon-Seok. “No other choice” is produced by Park Chan-Wook and back Jisun from Moho Film and Michèle Ray Gavras and Alexandre Gavras from KG production and executive produced by Miky Lee from CJ Group. CJ ENM funded the project, which is currently in post -production.
Neon founder Tom QuinnWhile a guest at IndieWire’s “Screen Talk” podcast on Cannes, Gushed about the chance to potentially work with park And discussed why the distributor jumped on the opportunity to acquire and reproduce Park’s seminal revenge film, “Oldboy”, into theaters in 2023, and a limited deluxe edition 4K UHD Blu-ray. “But no other choice,” is the first new collaboration between Neon and Park, but a reunion between Neon and Korean financier CJ ENM, which also worked on “Parasite.”
The deal was negotiated by Jason Wald on behalf of Neon with Namyoung Kim at CJ ENM.
Park is represented by WME, industry entertainment and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller, Gellman, Meigs & Fox. Lee is represented by UTA, BH Entertainment Co. Ltd. and McKuin Frankel Whitehead. Son is represented by MMEAM Entertainment.
