Hwang Dong-hyuk, the creator and director of hit Netflix series Squid Game, is making his return to film with sci-fi thriller K.O. Club starring Squid Game’s Lee Byung-hun.
Set in a dystopian future where rich people can buy their way into a longer life, the story pits an elderly elite class against hopeless younger citizens who are forced to fight for survival. The title is short for “Killing Oldmen Club”.
Filming is set to begin in the first half of 2027 through Firstman Studio, the production banner co-founded by Hwang and veteran producer Kim Ji-yeon which brought Squid Game to international prominence.
It will mark Hwang’s first film in a decade after The Fortress, a historical epic that took $22.6m locally and ranked among South Korea’s top 10 local films of 2017.
The Fortress also starred Lee, who went on to play Front Man in Squid Game and more recently starred in Park Chan-Wook’s No Other Choice.
For K.O. Club, Hwang has assembled a cast that also includes another Squid Game star Park Hae-soo, Oh Jung-se (Hi-Five), Kim So-jin of 2021 box office hit Escape From Mogadishu and Cho Yeo-jeong from Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite and Lee Chang-dong’s upcoming Venice Competition feature Possible Love.
Hwang established himself as a film director before Squid Game, which remains Netflix’s most-watched series ever and saw him become the first Asian director to win a Primetime Emmy Award for directing a non-English series.
Hwang’s film credits include 2007 feature debut My Father, 2011 crime drama Silenced, 2014 box office hit Miss Granny – which has spawned remakes in territories including Vietnam – and 2017’s The Fortress.
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