Brad Pitt and Netflix have agreed to back Bong Joon-ho’s highly anticipated next film. Pitt’s Plan B production company (which partnered with Netflix on his upcoming War Machine) will co-produce the film, while Netflix has invested in it. Okja, Joon-ho’s first film since last year’s VOD hit Snowpiercer, is described as a Korean monster movie about a young girl who befriends a creature called Okja and embarks on an “adventure across [their] tough world.” Jake Gyllenhaal has been tapped to star alongside Paul Dano, Tilda Swinton, Kelly Macdonald, and Bill Nighy. Netflix, which plans to launch in South Korea sometime next year, will give the film a theatrical run in 2017. (There’s no word yet on whether it’ll also be available to stream on Netflix.) Joon-ho reportedly made his dystopian thriller on a $40 million budget, but explained in an announcement that he “needed a bigger budget than [he] had for Snowpiercer and also complete creative freedom,” both of which he says Netflix and Pitt have granted him. Thanks, guys.
