Studios 'Host' redo

H'w'd interested in S. Korean monster movie

By DARCY PAQUET

Hollywood is reaching out to monster movie 'Host.'

SEOUL -- A South Korean monster movie about a huge amphibious mutant, which made a big splash at Cannes in May, is looking ripe for a Hollywood remake.

Multiple studios are said to be circling "The Host," which has a U.S. distribution deal with Magnolia Pictures. Sales agent Cineclick Asia expects to wrap up a deal on remake rights in the early fall.

Apart from the film's digital effects (courtesy of San Francisco's the Orphanage) and political barbs (aimed at both the Korean and U.S. governments), "The Host" marks an international coming-out party for Bong Joon-ho. Helmer, who previously directed fest hit "Memories of Murder," is poised to join Park Chan-wook ("Oldboy") and Kim Ki-duk ("Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... and Spring") as the best known figures of South Korea's film renaissance.

Bong's next projects will be a smaller-scale drama about a mother and her son, which could start shooting this year, and a big-budget adaptation of the French sci-fi comicbook "Le transperceneige."

The director reportedly has received offers from at least one top-level U.S. producer to direct in Hollywood, however, so Bong's plans could be in for a change.