HBO looking to transform Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite into a limited-series

Parasite, Bong Joon-ho, HBO, Adam McKay

At the recent 77th Golden Globes Award's Boon Joon Ho's PARASITE took home the prize for Best Foreign Language Film, and during his acceptance speech, Bong said that "Once you overcome the 1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films." He's not wrong, but the subtitle-phobic may yet get to see the story of PARASITE unfold as HBO is in negotiations to transform the film into a limited-series.

Bong Joon-ho and Adam McKay (VICE) will be crafting the limited-series adaptation of PARASITE for HBO, which revolves around members of a poor household who scheme to become employees of a much wealthier family by posing as unrelated, highly qualified individuals. The film has grown into a huge success, grossing over $130 million worldwide and has appeared on just about every critics Top Ten list. You can see why so many streaming services were after the project, but HBO, who has developed quite a number of fantastic limited-series over the years, including Band of Brothers, Chernobyl, Sharp Objects, The Night Of, and more, was clearly the right home.

Our own Chris Bumbray caught PARASITE when it screened at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, and while he was loathe to dive into spoiler territory in his review, he called the film "edgy and thoroughly unpredictable" while also praising the performance of Song Kang-ho (SNOWPIERCER). "[The actor delivers] another towering performance that’s a sharp contrast from the lovable dolt he seems to initially be playing," Bumbray said. "We’re encouraged to laugh at their poverty early on, making the audience, in a way, culpable for what comes next, as to Bong Joon-ho, it’s obvious there’s nothing funny about poverty or elitism. This is a parable for our time, but beyond that, it’s also just a tremendously entertaining film."

Those of you who have seen PARASITE, do you think it will make for a good HBO limited-series?

Source: Deadline

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Based in Canada, Kevin Fraser has been a news editor with JoBlo since 2015. When not writing for the site, you can find him indulging in his passion for baking and adding to his increasingly large collection of movies that he can never find the time to watch.