When Na Hong-jin set out to make Hope, he didn’t intend it to be the most expensive South Korean movie ever made. “That thought has never crossed my mind as I was preparing this film,” the filmmaker behind The Wailing and The Chaser tells Inverse.
But as the high-octane alien-invasion thriller moved from Na’s storyboards to reality, and Hollywood stars Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, and Taylor Russell joined the cast, production costs ballooned. The budget is reported to have reached almost 100 billion won, or $74.3 million. But when you see the finished product, it’s easy to see why Hope became so costly. A nonstop thrill ride that barrels from one frenzied set piece to the next, Hope follows the residents of a sleepy small coastal town that comes under attack from monstrous aliens. The action moves along at a breathless pace, which Na had envisioned from the very beginning.
