On a journey to colonize an ice planet a disposable employee finds himself in serious trouble after he fails to die in Director Bong Joon Ho’s sci-fi black comedy, Mickey 17.
Bong’s film tells the story of Mickey Barnes, a lovable loser who signs up to become an “expendable,” a crew member selected for dangerous tasks because his body can be reprinted with his memories largely intact if he dies. After things go very wrong one with regeneration, he has to find a new path forward if he is to survive.
On March 22, after the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles, Bong discussed the making of Mickey 17 during a Q&A moderated by Director Ava DuVernay (Origin).
Asked how he is able to stick to his storyboards without having to resort to coverage and reshoots Bong replied, “I just draw storyboards and I shoot it accordingly but I don't recommend it. There are a lot of Directors who do great works without storyboarding but it just became a habit of mine since I was a young filmmaker. (Laughs) My therapist tells me that I need to deal with my anxiety but storyboards ensure that I feel less anxious. If I show up on set without a storyboard it would feel like one of those recurring nightmares where I'm at central station without wearing any pants. It's quite conventional in the Korean film industry to do thorough storyboards but when I was making my first English language film, Snowpiercer, my 1st AD asked why I worked really hard in my storyboards. He didn't believe that I would actually follow them. But after a week into the shoot he realized that I do shoot accordingly and started going around with copies of my storyboard and just x-ing all the things that we go through.”
Bong’s other directorial credits include the feature films Barking Dogs Never Bite, Memories of Murder, The Host, Mother, Snowpiercer and Okja. He was nominated for the 2019 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for Parasite, which made history as the first international film to win Best Motion Picture of the Year at the Academy Awards, as well as Best Achievement in Directing, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Film. Bong has been a DGA member since 2016.