Seven years after he won the Palme d’Or with “Parasite,” Bong Joon Ho is back in Cannes, this time with his first animated feature.
“Ally,” in the works since 2019 and due for completion later this year, is set in the uncharted depths of the South Pacific Ocean, where a curious piglet squid dreams of becoming the star of a wildlife documentary. The impressive voice cast includes Ayo Edebiri, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista and Finn Wolfhard, with Alex Jayne Go as the lead. The film reunites the director with “Parasite” distributors Neon, which has already acquired North American rights. Meanwhile, Pathé is representing international sales excluding Japan and China, which are being overseen by CJ and Penture.
Speaking exclusively to Variety from the Gray D’Albion in Cannes, Bong discusses whether his fans might be surprised by his first animated feature and hoping to make an action sequence bigger than George Miller.
What was behind your decision to make an animated movie?
My first ever short was actually an animation film — stop motion animation. Making that was so difficult that I was like, ‘Okay, I’m just gonna work with actors, because they just move on their own and I don’t have to do anything.’ It was so taxing mentally. So that’s why I’ve been doing live-action for the past 20-30 years. But I’ve always had that dream to return to animation.
