Last year, Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho directed the live-action limited series Hellbound, based on his own webtoon, for the Netflix streaming service. Now Yeon and Netflix are teaming up again for a sci-fi horror series called Parasyte: The Grey, a live-action adaptation of the Japanese manga Parasyte (or Kiseiju).
Yeon is writing Parasyte: The Grey with Ryu Yong-jae, the writer of Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area. The story centers on
a group of humans as they wage war against unidentified parasitic life-forms that take control of human hosts and endeavor to grow their power.
Jeon So-nee (Scripting Your Destiny), Koo Kyo-hwan (D.P.), and Lee Jung-hyun (Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula) have signed on to star in the series. Screen Daily reports that Jeon will be playing “a woman who falls victim to a parasite and – when it fails to take over her brain – enters into a bizarre coexistence with it”. Koo takes on the role of “a man who tracks down parasites in an effort to try to find his missing sister”. And Lee will be “the leader of Team Grey, a taskforce battling parasites. After losing her husband to the invasive life-forms, she has committed herself to their destruction”.
Written by Hitoshi Iwaaki, the Parasyte manga was published by Kodansha and has sold more than 25 million copies in over 20 territories and countries. It has also received previous animation and live-action adaptations. Honestly, I had never heard of Parasyte before this news, but this adaptation has my interest through the fact that it’s being made by Yeon Sang-ho.
Filming on Parasyte: The Grey will begin next month and continue through the first half of 2023. Yeon provided the following statement:
The story will be completely different from the original. The opening will set up that the parasites have landed in Korea, too, and what happens. I conveyed that I wanted to do this sort of story to the original author through Kodansha and we were able to proceed because he liked it. I’m such a fan of Parasyte. It’s interesting and good to be able to tell my own story [in the same universe]. I’m trying to inherit and carry on the fun and philosophical elements as well.”
Are you a fan of Parasyte, and are you glad to hear that Yeon Sang-ho is making a live-action adaptation for Netflix? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.