Adam McKay Is Making An HBO Limited Series Based On PARASITE

Here's a bit of news we never expected to be relaying to you: Bong Joon-ho is teaming up with Adam McKay for an HBO limited series based on Parasite, the director's 2018 South Korean blockbuster ($130M worldwide and counting, folks), which is all but guaranteed to take home a few Oscars this year. Apparently, HBO scored the rights to the project following a fierce bidding war with Netflix. 

The Hollywood Reporter, who broke this story, say that deals are not completely in place, but that talks are well underway. The plans calls for both McKay and Bong to executive produce the series, with the latter helping the former adapt the film for English-language audiences. Presumably McKay will direct, but we're also not ruling out the possibility that Bong could direct an episode or two, as well. I mean, really, who knows? This is all pretty wild.

Given Parasite's darkly comic subject matter and blistering social commentary, it's easy to see what attracted McKay to the project. Despite making his bones with goofy comedies like Anchorman and The Other Guys, McKay has spent the better part of the past decade working with material that's a bit more political in nature (see also: Vice, HBO's Succession). An English-language version of Parasite would fit right in with the rest of his resume.

Is this a good idea? A bad one? Hell, we won't know until we've actually seen it, but we do know that Bong's involvement goes a long way towards making us hopeful about the final product. Fingers crossed that whatever they come up with delivers even half as much as Bong's film (which, it probably goes without saying, you really should have seen by now - it's excellent). 

Stay tuned for more on this one as further updates become available.