South Korean director Na Hong-Jin made his first-ever appearance at San Diego Comic-Con this week to preview his long-anticipated alien action film Hope, unveiling new footage.
He credited the casting of Squid Game breakout star Hoyeon as one of the best decisions he made bringing the decade-long passion project to the screen.
Ahead of Na taking the stage in Ballroom 20, a short reel of his back catalogue played for the audience, spanning his 2008 debut The Chaser through The Yellow Sea and The Wailing, all set to Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train.
Introducing the tone of his new film, Na explained its relationship to his earlier work: “Hope is a continuation in terms of the same metaphor and the same meaning, but in terms of the style and the thought and the content is completely different.”
Hope is set in the remote village of Hope Harbor, where a mysterious creature wreaks havoc on the community, with police and local hunters who set out to track the beast instead finding themselves hunted.
Discussing how Hoyeon came to join the international cast, Na explained that co-star Hwang Jung-min was the one who first pushed for her casting as a tenacious police officer.
“He said that if you meet her, you realise how special of a person she is,” Na recalled, adding that he arranged to meet her shortly after.
The director and star reportedly read through the script together over takeout, and she signed on soon after.
Hope premiered out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year to strong reviews, currently holding an 80% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and features a sprawling international ensemble including Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Taylor Russell, Cameron Britton, Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender, with the latter three playing the film’s extraterrestrial creatures.
Speaking about the film’s action-first priority ahead of its release, Na has previously said the project marked a deliberate departure from his earlier, more dialogue-heavy work: “The story had to be felt through the action. Without dialogue or description, the action itself had to carry what the film wants to say.”
Hope opens in US theatres on 9 September.
