Award-winning studio NEON announced today that it has boarded the North American rights to “No Other Choice,” the next film in the formidable oeuvre of acclaimed Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook (“Decision to Leave,” “The Handmaiden,” “Oldboy”). Lee Byung-hun (“I Saw the Devil,” “Squid Game 1&2”) and Son Yejin (“The Last Princess,” “A Moment to Remember”) are set to star as husband and wife alongside an ensemble cast including Park Hee-soon (“My Name”), Lee Sung-min (“The Spy Gone North”), Yeom Hye-ran (“The Glory”), Cha Seung-won (“Believer 1&2”), and Yoo Yeon-seok (“Mr. Sunshine”).
“No Other Choice “is produced by Park Chan-wook and Back Jisun of Moho Film and Michèle Ray Gavras and Alexandre Gavras of KG Production, and executive produced by Miky Lee of CJ Group. CJ ENM financed the project, which is currently in post-production. The deal was negotiated by Jason Wald on behalf of NEON with Namyoung Kim at CJ ENM. The acquisition marks a return pairing of NEON and CJ ENM following their collaboration on the historic release of “Parasite”.
Following NEON’s recent Academy Award Best Picture wins with “Anora “and “Parasite,” and its six-year streak of winning the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, NEON will gear up the title for an anticipated awards run.
“No Other Choice,” Park’s 12th feature, is based on the 1997 novel “The Ax “by Donald Westlake. It follows a man (Lee) who is abruptly laid off by the paper company where he worked tirelessly for many years. He grows increasingly desperate in his hunt for new work, eventually he comes to a certain decision.
Park Chan-wook is one of the world’s most visionary and singular directors. For his last feature “Decision to Leave,” he won the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022. He is known for films such as “Joint Security Area” and “Oldboy,” with which he broke into the mainstream global audience and received commercial and critical acclaim, “Thirst,” and “The Handmaiden “for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language. Most recently, he co-directed the HBO miniseries “The Sympathizer,” starring Robert Downey, Jr.
Lee Byung-hun is a South Korean actor who has worked on many projects of different genres, including Park Chan-wook’s “Joint Security Area,” Kim Jee-woon’s action films “A Bittersweet Life “and “I Saw the Devil,” “Inside Men,” two “G.I. Joe “films, “Red 2,” “Terminator Genisys,” and “The Magnificent Seven”.” “He also starred in Netflix’s successful series “Squid Game.”
Son Yejin is a South Korean actress best known for her work in popular romance films “The Classic,” “A Moment to Remember,” “The Last Princess,” and “My Wife Got Married”. She also has extensive TV credits including “Crash Landing on You,” “Something in the Rain,” “Alone in Love,” and “Summer Scent.” She is known as Korea’s “Nation’s First Love.”
“No Other Choice” marks NEON and Park Chan-wook’s second collaboration following the successful re-release of “Oldboy” in theaters and a limited deluxe edition 4K UHD Blu-ray, including a 68-page casebound book and over 18 hours of bonus material, to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2023.
NEON is behind Sean Baker’s “Anor”a starring Mikey Madison which recently took home five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress and its theatrical release opened to the highest per-screen average of 2024.
In Cannes, NEON earned its sixth consecutive Palme d’Or win with Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident,” which the company acquired at the festival, and won a total of 6 awards across all films including Grand Prix for Joachim Trier’s” Sentimental Value.” Also in Cannes, NEON debuted Julia Ducournau’s “Alpha,” Raoul Peck’s “Orwell: 2+2=5,” and Michael Angelo Covino’s “Splitsville” starring Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona which NEON also produced. The company acquired North American rights to “Sirât” from Oliver Laxe; “The Secret Agent” from acclaimed writer/director Kleber Mendonça Filho; and Ugo Bienvenu’s animated feature “Arco” with Natalie Portman.
Park is repped by WME, Industry Entertainment, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller, Gellman, Meigs & Fox. Lee is repped by UTA, BH Entertainment Co. Ltd., and McKuin Frankel Whitehead. Son is repped by MSTeam Entertainment.
About NEON
In only eight years, NEON has garnered 39 Academy Award nominations (7 this year), 11 total wins (5 this year), including two Best Picture wins, and has grossed over $400M at the box office. The company continues to push boundaries and take creative risks on bold cinema such as Sean Baker’s “Anora, “which recently took home five Academy Awards including Best Picture, and was released in theaters to the highest per-screen average of 2024; as well as Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite,” which made history winning four Academy Awards, becoming the first non-English-language film to claim Best Picture, and grossed over $54M at the domestic box office.
NEON has built an impressive streak winning the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, with six consecutive wins, including” “this most recent year’s winner “It Was Just an Accident “from Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi,” as well as Anora, Parasite,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Titane, “and “Triangle of Sadness. “In 2024, NEON was named The Hollywood Reporter’s Independent Studio of the Year and received the Clio Award for Studio of the Year.
Recent NEON releases include Mike Flanagan’s “The Life of Chuck” and Osgood Perkins’ horror film “The Monkey,” both of which are based on the short stories by Stephen King. “The Monkey “marked NEON’s second biggest opening weekend at the box office following Perkins’ “Longlegs,” which is the highest grossing independent film of the year at $75 million domestically.
As a burgeoning leader in the production space, NEON’s recent and upcoming in-house productions include: David Robert Mitchell’s “They Follow “starring Maika Monroe; Michael Covino’s “Splitsville “starring Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona; the highly anticipated Boots Riley feature “I Love Boosters” starring Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, LaKeith Stanfield, Demi Moore, and Eiza González;” The Wrong Girls” starring Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat”; “Tilman Singer’s “Cuckoo “starring Hunter Schafer; and Brandon Cronenberg’s “Infinity Pool”. NEON’s international sales outfit handles the company’s in-house titles as well as third party projects.
NEON has amassed a library of over 120 films, with a noteworthy selection of Academy Award nominated films including: Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”; Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days”; “Robot Dreams” from Pablo Berger; documentaries “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” “Fire of Love,” “Moonage Daydream,” and “Flee,” which made history becoming the first film to score an impressive trifecta of Oscar nominations; Joachim Trier’s “The Worst Person in The World”; and Craig Gillespie’s “I, Tonya.”