Steven Yeun and more join Bong Joon-ho’s Okja as filming begins

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

THE HOST director Bong Joon-ho is making a new creature feature. Production has officially begun on his film OKJA, which follows 

a young girl who must risk everything to prevent a powerful, multi-national company from kidnapping her best friend – a massive animal named Okja. 

Joon-ho wrote the screenplay with Jon Ronson, and with this film he says he wants to "show the beauty that can exist between man and animal, and also the horror between them." 

Seo-hyun Ahn is set to star as the young girl, Mija, alongside previously announced cast members Jake Gyllenhaal, Tilda Swinton, Kelly Macdonald, and Lily Collins. Paul Dano had been waiting to see if he could fit OKJA into his schedule, and it appears that he will be in the movie after all.

Newly announced cast members include Devon Bostick, Byun Hee-bong, Shirley Henderson, Daniel Henshall, Yoon Je Moon, Choi Woo-shik, and The Walking Dead's Steven Yeun. 

Filming on OKJA will take place in South Korea, Canada, and the United States. The movie is set to hit Netflix in 2017, and will also be receiving a limited day and date theatrical release.

Kelly Macdonald