Bong Joon-Ho is too exhausted to work on 'Parasite' follow-up

Bong Joon-Ho, the recent recipient of the Best Director Academy Award for his work on Parasite, has admitted that he is too exhausted from his Oscar campaign to start work on his next movie.

The South Korean filmmaker made this admission during his recent discussion with director Kelly Reichardt for The Atlantic, who was interested in his post-Parasite plans.

“Now that I finally have time, I’m trying to get back on it, but I’m so exhausted, mentally and physically,” Bong Joon-Ho candidly admitted. “I’m just a shell of a human.”

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After the Academy Awards, Bong Joon-Ho revealed that he had been working on two projects, one of which he hopes will eventually become his next film. He confirmed one is in Korean, and the other is in English.

It sounds as if Bong Joon-Ho is going to have to change his writing habits in the future, though.

During his interview with Reichardt, Bong Joon-Ho broke down his process, admitting, “Even when I have a co-writer, I don’t really discuss things with them. I let them do their own drafts, and then I take over and spend five to six months producing the final draft on my own.”

Read more: Parasite explained

At that point, he takes his iPad and a wireless keyboard to various coffee shops, where he just hides “in a corner” and writes by himself. “I have to be at a coffee shop with noise around me,” he added. “I always end up sleeping if I write at home.”

This provoked First Cow director Reichardt to tell him, “You can’t go sit in a coffee shop now! You’re too famous! You blew it!”

But director Bong insisted, “There’s always corners where I can hide.”