Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae's directorial debut joins 2022 Cannes Film Festival lineup

Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae's directorial debut joins 2022 Cannes Film Festival lineup
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Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae will debut his new spy thriller as both the lead actor and a first-time director.

The Korean actor's Hunt is set for its world premiere as part of the 2022 Cannes lineup, marking his first feature as a filmmaker, the festival announced Thursday. The movie is a 1980s-set thriller about an agent working for the Agency for National Security Planning as he tracks a North Korean spy. It also stars Jung Woo-sung, with Jung-Jae penning the script.

squid game
squid game

netflix Lee Jung-Jae in 'Squid Game'

Following the breakout success of his Netflix drama Squid Game, the 49-year-old actor told EW in October that he's interested in reprising his role in a possible second season.

"Of course," he said when asked if he'd like to continue playing Seong Gi-hun, a.k.a. Player 456, who in season 1 entered a violent contest between Korean citizens competing in deadly games for a huge cash prize. "Because I've received so much love and support from [viewers], of course I have to play him again if there is a season 2. But at this point I don't know anything about how the story is going to turn out, or how the characters are going to change, or if there is going to be any new characters adding to the series… And I also don't know whether if Gi-hun's role was still be the main role or like a minor role on the side. But whatever it's going to be, of course I would have to say yes."

Hunt joins a robust lineup at Cannes' upcoming edition, debuting alongside non-competition titles like Baz Luhrmann's Elvis biopic starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks, which will premiere at the same event where the music icon's granddaughter, Riley Keough, is set to screen her feature directorial debut, Beast.

Tom Cruise's anticipated Top Gun sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, and Ethan Coen's solo directorial project Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind are also slated for out-of-competition screenings at the French festival.

Competing for the Palme d'Or — often considered the most prestigious prize in global cinema — will be Kristen Stewart's David Cronenberg–directed body horror project Crimes of the Future, Park Chan-wook's Decision to Leave, Claire Denis' Stars at Noon, Kelly Reichardt's Showing Up, and James Gray's Armageddon Time, a film starring Anne Hathaway and Anthony Hopkins that many pundits have already pegged as a likely Oscar contender.

The 2022 Cannes Film Festival runs May 17-28. See the full list of films playing at this year's edition below.

Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis; Crimes of the Future
Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis; Crimes of the Future

Scott Garfield/Paramount Pictures; Hugh Stewart/Warner Bros.; Nikos Nikolopoulos/Neon The 2022 Cannes Film Festival lineup includes new films from Tom Cruise, Baz Luhrmann, Kristen Stewart, Anne Hathaway, and 'Squid Game' star Lee Jung-jae.

Opening night:

Z (Comme Z) — Michel Hazanavicius

Competition:

Holy Spider — Ali Abbasi
Les Amandiers — Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
Crimes of the Future — David Cronenberg
Tori and Lokita — Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Stars at Noon — Claire Denis
Frère et Soeur — Arnaud Desplechin
Close — Lukas Dhont
Armageddon Time — James Gray
Broker — Kore-eda Horokazu
Nostalgia — Mario Martone
RMN — Cristian Mungiu
Triangle of Sadness — Ruben Östlund
Decision to Leave — Park Chan-wook
Showing Up — Kelly Reichardt
Leila's Brothers — Saeed Roustaee
Boy From Heaven — Tarik Saleh
Zhena Chaikovskogo (Tchaïkovski's Wife) — Kirill Serebrennikov
Eo — Jerzy Skolimowski

Un Certain Regard:

All the People I'll Never Be — Davy Chou
Beast — Riley Keough and Gina Gammell
Burning Days — Emin Alper
Butterfly Vision — Maksim Nakonechnyi
Corsage — Marie Kruetzer
Domingo and the Mist — Ariel Escalante Meza
Godland — Hlynur Pálmason
Joyland — Saim Sadiq
Metronom — Alexandru Belc
Plan 75 — Hayakawa Chie
Rodeo — Lola Quivoron
Sick of Myself — Kristoffer Borgli
The Silent Twins — Agnieszka Smocynska
The Stranger — Thomas M. Wright
The Worst — Lise Akora and Romane Gueret

Out of Competition:

Elvis — Baz Luhrmann
Mascarade — Nicolas Bedos
November — Cédric Jimenez
Three Thousand Years of Longing — George Miller
Top Gun: Maverick — Joseph Kosinski

Midnight Screenings:

Fumer Fait Tousser — Quentin Dupieux
Hunt — Lee Jung-Jae
Moonage Daydream — Brett Morgen

Cannes Premieres:

Dodo — Panos H. Koutras
Nightfall — Marco Bellocchio
Irma Vep — Olivier Assayas
Nos Frangins — Rachid Bouchareb

Special Screenings:

Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind — Ethan Coen
The Natural History of Destruction — Sergei Loznitsa
All That Breathes — Shaunak Sen

Check out more from EW's The Awardist, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best films.

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