South Korean writer-director Chan-wook Park drew international notice with his chilling Vengeance Trilogy that included the uniquely disturbing thrillers Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Lady Vengeance, and the series' most popular offering Oldboy. For many Stateside, his work served as their introduction to the incredible crime dramas coming out of South Korea. But with the 2013 release of the horror-thriller Stoker, his first American feature, Park is poised to score his biggest audience yet.
Hot on the heels of wrapping Stoker, Park is being pursued by Red Granite Pictures—in conjunction with Mythology Entertainment—to helm another American movie, and this time it's a western. The project, titled The Brigands of Rattleborge, first earned buzz in 2006 when it won a spot on the Black List, a coveted collection of the most popular unproduced screenplays floating around Hollywood. Penned by Craig Zahler, the film focuses on the battle between a band of bandits who ravage a town under cover of an unrelenting thunderstorm, and a local sheriff and a doctor, who decide enough is enough and seek a bloody vengeance.
Despite the praise for Zahler's script, The Brigands of Rattleborge was stuck in development because of the intense amount of violence it contains. You may now see why Park could be the perfect choice for this pic. Variety insists that to make the project's level of violence marketable to a broad audience producers will probably need a major star to sign on. So, while Park would likely handle the film's violence with the brutal finesse he's become known for, his reputation could help The Brigands of Rattleborge attract an A-lister. Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska are starring in Stoker after all. In short, it sounds like a great project for Park with an intriguing challenge presented by a new genre. Hopefully, he'll sign on soon.
No production date has yet been set for The Brigands of Rattleborge, but in the meantime Park has other irons in the fire, like producing fellow South Korean filmmaker Joon-ho Bong's American debut Snowpiercer, which will hit theaters in 2013.
