Update: We’ve confirmed the English-language title for Park Chan-wook’s next film is No Other Choice.
Following up his noir melodrama Decision to Leave, Park Chan-wook ventured into the world of American television with the forthcoming Max series The Sympathizer, adapting Viet Thanh Nguyen’s acclaimed novel and teaming with Robert Downey Jr. As revealed earlier this year, he’s now set to return to South Korea for his next feature and as production begins this week more details have been unveiled.
Set to begin shooting this Saturday, August 17, Park will be adapting Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 novel The Ax, which the legendary Costa-Gavras first adapted in 2005. The black comedy thriller follows a man laid off from the paper company he worked at for 25 years. Some time later and still jobless, he hits on a solution: to genuinely eliminate his competition. Adapted by Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyung-mi (Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, The Truth Beneath), Don McKellar (The Sympathizer), Lee Ja-hye (Decision to Leave, The Handmaiden), the cast includes Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won, and Yoo Yeon-seok.
Here’s an expanded synopsis of the novel:
Burke Devore is a middle-aged manager at a paper company when the cost-cutting ax falls, and he is laid off. Eighteen months later and still unemployed, he puts a new spin on his job search — with agonizing care, Devore finds the seven men in the surrounding area who could take the job that rightfully should be his, and systematically kills them. Transforming himself from mild-mannered middle manager to ruthless murderer, he discovers skills ne never knew he had — and that come to him far too easily.
Ahead of the release, a new title has been revealed via an intriguing teaser concept poster as 어쩔수가없다‘, with the English version being No Other Choice. Check out Park Chan-wook and his main leads below, along with the poster. Hopefully we could see this one turn up as soon as Cannes 2025.
