Bong Joon Ho Is Hopeful His HBO ‘Parasite’ Series With Adam McKay Will Be ‘Something Of Great Genius’

Parasite was a global sensation, earning $258.8 million at the worldwide box office and winning four Oscars, including Best Picture, the first foreign-language film to do so. It’s now being turned into a television show, which would be cause for concern if director and writer Bong Joon Ho wasn’t involved. He’s listed as a producer for the HBO adaptation, which he called a “black comedy” at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday. “I’m working in close cooperation with screenwriter Adam McKay.”

McKay directed Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and Step Brothers, three of the funniest films of the 2000s, but he’s also had success with social satires (The Big Short, which won him an Academy Award) and HBO series that straddle between bleak drama and sidesplitting comedy (Succession, which he produces). If any duo can pull off Parasite: The Show, it’s Bong and McKay.

Bong continued:

“Parasite is a film on wealthy and poor families, and that is a problem everywhere. [The television series] will be something of great genius, I hope. I worked with Adam McKay and he’s figuring out the scenario. We’re going to do it in the United States… The subject continues to have resonance in France and elsewhere. Many of [us] would like to be rich, but I think in all of us there is a fear of becoming poor.”

I’d like to be rich, but I’d settle for learning more about Jessica, only child, Illinois, Chicago (sorry/not sorry for getting the song stuck in your head).

(Via IndieWire)