Netflix will invest $50 million in upcoming South Korean film Okja by Bong Joon Ho which will be co-produced by Plan B Entertainment, an American film production studio co-founded by Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.
Okja is a monster movie about the friendship between a little girl and some type of creature. I hope it shares some DNA with Joon-ho’s best movie, The Host. The cast is nothing to shake a stick at, with Jake Gyllenhaal, Snowpiercer star Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Kelly Macdonald, and Bill Nighy all in play.
The film is one of the first features in Asia to be backed by the streaming firm, which is in the process of launching services across the region. Netflix is expected to launch in Korea in 2016. A Netflix spokesman declined to comment on any financials.
“It really is a fantastic opportunity for me as a filmmaker,” Bong said in a statement. “For Okja, I needed a bigger budget than I had for Snowpiercer and also complete creative freedom. Netflix offered me the two conditions that are difficult to have in hand simultaneously.”
Image credit : Empire Online