OLD BOY Director Park Chan-wook Sets Up Next Film Project THE AX

Park Chan-wook has set up his next feature film project, which he plans on directing in South Korea. The project will be an adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 novel The Ax.

This is a dark comedy thriller that follows a chemist who loses his job to outsourcing. A couple years later and still jobless, he comes up with a solution to his problem, to eliminate his competition.

The description of the novel reads: “Burke Devore is a middle-aged manager at a paper company when the cost-cutting ax falls, and he is laid off.”

“Eighteen months later and still unemployed, he puts a new spin on his job search — with agonizing care, Devore finds the seven men in the surrounding area who could take the job that rightfully should be his, and systematically kills them. Transforming himself from mild-mannered middle manager to ruthless murderer, he discovers skills ne never knew ne had — and that come to him far too easily.”

That sounds like the kind of story that Park would have fun diving into. The story was actually previously adapted in 2005, but I think Park will do an awesome job retelling this story.

It’s also reported that Lee Byung-hun, who worked with Park on 2000’s Joint Security Area, and Son Ye-jin, are attached to the project, and it will be filmed later this year.

Park’s most recent project is a series that he made with Robert Downey Jr. titled The Sympathizer, which is an adaptation of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s acclaimed novel.