Park Chan-wook has an ‘AXE’ to Grind with his Upcoming Film

As the popular Korean director finishes up his first English language film, Stoker, preparations are already being made on his next film.  Judging by the director’s past films that explore the theme of revenge (Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Lady Vengeance), The Axe looks to be in just the right hands.  Park Chan-wook explains in an interview with Korea Joongang Daily that he “was planning to make another film, ‘The Axe,’ before I started shooting ‘Stoker.” He goes on to explain that the plot centers around,  “a chemist, who loses his job to outsourcing. Two years later and still jobless, he hits on a solution: to genuinely eliminate his competition.” He continues, “while I was still seeking investors for that film, I received the screenplay for ‘Stoker.’  So ‘The Axe’ will be my next work, though I need to do some more work on the casting and attracting investors. I’m also thinking about making a historical film, but I’m not sure when I’ll be able to do that… I’d like to continue working in both Hollywood and Korea. Actually, it doesn’t matter to me where a film is made. If the story is good, I’ll follow it.”

The film is a remake of a 2005 French/Belgium film Le Couperet which was based on a book by Donald Westlake.  Though I enjoyed the director’s recent foray away from bloody revenge stories – like he did with the charmingly quirky I’m a Cyborg But That’s Okay which can now be seen on Netflix Instant – it’ll be nice to see him return to familiar territory.

The full interview with the director can be found HERE. It’s quite interesting for fans of the director and goes into some details about the upcoming film Stoker as well.

Source: Korea Joongang Daily via The Film Stage