Aw, isn’t little Wang Seok-hyun cute?

September 5 saw the end of the 17th Chunsa Film Festival and its closing-night awards ceremony, which was held in Icheon, Kyunggi-do. The winners list was dominated by the popular, recently released sports film Take Off [국가대표, or National Athlete], although vampire film Thirst did well, as did lush period piece Portrait of a Beauty.

Full winners list below:

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With Hollywood remakes planned for Park Chan-wook’s Cannes prizewinner Oldboy (2003) and the follow-up film Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005), I suppose it should be no surprise that the precursor to those two, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, is also getting the remake treatment.

Film producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura came to Seoul to promote the release of the action flick GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and said in a press conference on the 29th that they are currently in talks with CJ Entertainment over remake plans for Mr. Vengeance. As they are still in planning stages, they have not yet fixed on a director or actors. He went on to praise the visual aesthetics of Korean films, singling out Taegukgi as a particularly noteworthy achievement.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance was released in 2002 and stars Song Kang-ho, Shin Ha-kyun, and Bae Doo-na. It’s the first in what is called Park’s “Vengeance Trilogy” and had a short, limited U.S. theatrical run in 2005.

Given the high profile of the other two Park Chan-wook remake participants — Steven Spielberg, Will Smith, Charlize Theron — one wonders what kinds of names may end up attached to this one.

Via My Daily

RELATED POSTS

• Thirst gets a U.S. release
• Thirst wins jury prize at Cannes
• Hollywood to remake Oldboy

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This is pretty cool: Park Chan-wook’s recent Cannes jury prize winner, Thirst, will have a U.S. theatrical release.

Film distributor Focus Features (a division of Universal Pictures) has picked up the vampire thriller; it will open in theaters in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and other large cities on July 31. The film has already been sold to approximately 20 countries throughout Europe, South America, and Asia.

Via Chosun, Ain’t It Cool News

RELATED POSTS

• Thirst wins jury prize at Cannes
• Thirst’s preview attracts A-list VIPs
• Thirst: The vampire chic version
• Park Chan-wook unveils Thirst

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Director Park Chan-wook had won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival in 2004 for Oldboy (the second-place award, below the Palme d’Or); this weekend, he won another award for his vampire horror movie Thirst as the festival closed on Sunday.

The film starring Song Kang-ho (The Good, the Bad, the Weird) and Kim Ok-bin (War of Money, Dasepo Naughty Girs) took the jury prize, the third-place honor (top prize went to The White Ribbon by Austrian director Michael Haneke; second to French film A Prophet).

Director Park said he would share his honor with his lead star Song, with whom he has worked several times already in Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, and Joint Security Area: “I enjoy making movies from the very beginning through the end, and the last step of that enjoyment is the Cannes Film Festival. I’d like to share this honor with my dearest friend and colleague, actor Song Kang-ho.”

Via Festival de Cannes, Yahoo News, My Daily

RELATED POSTS

• Thirst’s preview attracts A-list VIPs
• Thirst: The vampire chic version
• Park Chan-wook unveils Thirst
• Vampire priest thirsts for love in “Bat”
• Director Park Chan-wook’s latest muse

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Whoaaa. Check out this new still from the vampire film Thirst [박쥐], which recently confirmed that it will be screening at Cannes International Film Festival later this year.

The much-buzzed-about film held its press conference and VIP preview screening on the afternoon of April 24 in Seoul. Given the movie’s high profile (and its director and lead actor), the screening attracted some big names, such as Lee Byung-heon, Jeon Do-yeon, Won Bin, Rain, and Song Hye-gyo.

Lead actor Song Kang-ho, playing the vampire priest who falls for his friend’s wife (Kim Ok-bin), discussed some of the film’s more provocative scenes, one of which serves as the crucial point of the film. He had discussed the scene in some depth with director Park Chan-wook and had no qualms shooting it, as he agreed that it was essential to the story.

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