‘Parasite’: HBO In Talks For Limited Series Based On Bong Joon Ho’s Movie From Bong & Adam McKay

Nellie Andreeva

HBO is in negotiations for a limited series based on one of the hottest movies of the year, Bong Joon Ho’s genre-bending Parasite.

Bong and Adam McKay will craft the TV series adaptation, from CJ Entertainment, the studio behind the feature film, McKay’s Hyperobject Industries and Dooho Choi’s Kate Street Picture Company.

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The Parasite series was hotly pursued by top streamers, including Netflix. The in-demand Bong chose to set up the project at HBO, which has a strong track record in limited series — from Band of Brothers to Big Little Lies — and team up with Succession executive producer McKay, who is under a first-look deal at HBO/HBO Max.

Bong and McKay will executive produce with Choi for Kate Street, Miky Lee, Cho Young Ki and Francis Chung for CJ Entertainment and Kevin Messick for Hyperobject Industries. CJ Entertainment’s Jerry Ko is co-executive producer and Fred Lee is a producer. The project is a co-production of Kate Street Picture Company, CJ Entertainment and Hyperobject Industries.

Directed by Bong Joon Ho and written by Bong and Han Jin Won, Parasite stars Song Kang Ho, Lee Sun Kyun, Cho Yeo Jeong, Choi Woo Shik, Park So Dam, Lee Jung Eun and Chang Hyae Jin. The film, which revolves around the members of a poor family who together scheme to work in a wealthy household by posing as unrelated, highly qualified help, has become a global phenom, grossing $130M worldwide so far ($24M in the U.S.) with one of the most talked about movie endings in years.

The awards season darling has continued to garner praise since winning the Palme d’Or in Cannes last May. It is coming off its latest win for Best Foreign Language Film at Sunday’s Golden Globes, where it also had nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay. The movie is shortlisted for the Best International Feature Oscar and has already taken home an armful of prizes from critics bodies, including the top honor from the National Society of Film Critics.

Parasite is Bong’s seventh feature film, following on from Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000), Memories of Murder (2003), The Host (2006), Mother (2009), Snowpiercer (2013), and Okja (2017). Known for his cutting, socially incisive wit and twisting of genre conventions, Bong has continually raised questions about social institutions and the inequities of society with his unique blend of humor, emotion and suspense.

Choi is the producing partner of writer/director Bong and founder of Kate Street Picture Company. He produced the films Okja and Snowpiercer and continues his collaboration with Bong across a number of projects including executive producing the upcoming TNT series based on Snowpiercer.

CJ Entertainment is the film studio of CJ ENM Corporation, Korea’s leading entertainment conglomerate. In addition to Parasite, CJ’s recently completed films include Drake Doremus’ Endings, Beginnings, starring Shailene Woodley, Jamie Dornan and Sebastian Stan (acquired by Samuel Goldwyn Films). Upcoming films are Extreme Job, one of two current collaborations with Kevin Hart and Universal Pictures on English language remakes of Korean hits, and dramedy, Bye, Bye, Bye based on the Korean hit Sunny.

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