

〉 The Oldboy director is attached to direct a new feature version of the lauded sci-fi novel.

Park Chan-wook is known for directing visually stunning, yet brutal films that explore dark subject matter, which makes him the perfect choice to steer the feature adaptation of Japanese science fiction writer Project Itoh‘s novel, GENOCIDAL ORGAN.

Set in a time when Sarajevo was obliterated by a homemade nuclear device, the story reflects a world inundated with genocide. An American man by the name of John Paul seems to be responsible for all of this and intelligence agent Clavis Shepherd treks across the wasteland of the world to find him and the eponymous “genocidal organ.”

The novel was published in 2007 and was translated into English in 2012. It garnered critical praise and was named “Best SF of 2007” in a poll by SF Magazine.

This won’t be the first attempt to adapt Itoh’s book into a film. Manglobe was developing an anime version of Genocidal Organ written and directed by Shuko Murase which was slated for a November 13, 2015 release date. After Manglobe went bankrupt, however, the project was shelved indefinitely. The newly-created Geno Studio picked up the project and continued production with Murase. It’s expected to be completed by the end of 2016.

The details for Chan-wook’s adaptation have been kept under wraps, but Sean Daniel and his production company, The Sean Daniel Company are set to produce.

Daniel is the executive producer of Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some and is the producer of the upcoming Ben-Hur remake. He is also signed on to produce the highly-anticipated The Mummy reboot, which will star Tom Cruise in the first of Universal’s plan to create an expansive monster-movie universe.

Chan-wook is best known for his Vengeance Trilogy which includes Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. He also gave us a different take on the vampire genre with Thirst in 2009. In 2013, he directed his first English-speaking feature, Stoker, starring Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska, and Matthew Goode. The thriller was written by Prison Break‘s Wentworth Miller and landed on the Black List and the Hit List as one of the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood in 2010. Chan-wook is currently directing a Korean version of Sarah Waters’s novel, Fingersmith and is attached to direct the forthcoming western, The Brigands of Rattleborge.

Chan-wook is repped by WME.

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Dino-Ray Ramos | Staff Writer