Nov 19, 2008–Universal and Gore Verbinski will remake the 2006 Bong Joon-ho's Korean thriller “The Host,” with commercials director Fredrik Bond making his feature helming debut and Mark Poirier (“Smart People”) as scripter.
The story follows a town terrorized by a giant mutant squidlike creature hatched by toxins that flow into a nearby river from a military base. When the creature grabs a little girl, her dysfunctional family must band together to rescue her.
Verbinski will produce with Vertigo's Roy Lee and Doug Davison, along with Paul Brooks. The film, originally titled “Gwoemul,” was very popular in South Korea.
Bond has directed campaigns for Nike, Adidas and Levi's. He and Verbinski had been looking for a project to do together, and Bond said he embraced the opportunity to mix a larger-than-life monster with a heartfelt family drama.
Verbinski set up the project through Blind Wink Prods., the company he formed at Universal, where he is developing to direct an adaptation of the vidgame “Bioshock.”
