Park Chan-wook is at present in manufacturing on the post-Vietnam Struggle drama sequence The Sympathizer for HBO and A24, however with a weekend off, the Resolution to Depart helmer decided to enter Saturday’s BAFTA Tea Get together in Beverly Hills.

Earlier than he ducked into the ballroom, Park took a second to talk to The truestarz on the crimson carpet, the place he shared a bit of about what it’s wish to not solely direct Robert Downey Jr. within the adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen however to look at the best way he strikes concerning the set.

“To start with, he’s very pleasant and nice character, with a character that basically lights up the complete set and makes everybody blissful to be there and having such an fulfilling expertise,” Park relayed by means of a translator. “He remembers each single crew member and all of the background actors. He actually is pleasant with all of them and provides them every an excellent pat on the again after their performances. He’s so encouraging to everybody.”

Whereas that every one sounds beautiful and anticipated from the well-respected Downey, Park did say that he may have his work reduce out for him when he will get to the modifying bay. “With each setup and each take, [Robert] improvises dialogue each single time that’s extremely witty and stems from one thing actually deep from the character itself. For me, selecting which take to go along with will actually [be] the most important downside that I’ve as a creator working with him.”

The Sympathizer, ordered to sequence by HBO in July 2021, is described as half espionage thriller and half cross-culture satire. It follows the Captain (Hoa Xuande), a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy through the closing days of the Vietnam Struggle and his ensuing exile in the US. After leaving Vietnam through the fall of Saigon in 1975, the Captain turns into enmeshed within the Southern California exile group and serves as a cultural adviser to an American movie concerning the conflict. He’s later recruited to return to Vietnam for a raid on the communists.

Fred Nguyen Khan, Toan Le, Vy Le and Alan Trong spherical out the solid. Park and Don McKellar are co-showrunners on The Sympathizer. The sequence is a co-production between HBO, A24 and Rhombus Media, in affiliation with Cinetic Media and Moho Movie. Park and McKellar government produce with Robert and Susan Downey and Amanda Burrell of Group Downey, A24, Kim Ly, Rhombus Media’s Niv Fichman, Ron Schmidt, creator Nguyen and Moho Movie’s Jisun Again. A debut date hasn’t been set.

When The truestarz’s Scott Feinberg sat down in dialog with Downey and his spouse and producing associate Susan Downey in December to speak about their Netflix documentary Sr., Susan confirmed that her husband performs 5 roles in The Sympathizer.

“That one’s actually enjoyable,” she stated of the restricted sequence, with Robert including that he shaved his head for the sequence with the intention to save an hour a day reasonably than placed on a bald cap to vary up the appears to be like for every character. (Paparazzi pictures from the set surfaced final week exhibiting the actor in quite a lot of appears to be like.)

Although Park is finest recognized for his function movie work with credit like Oldboy, The Handmaiden, Woman Vengeance, Stoker and Thirst, the director says he’s not approaching The Sympathizer restricted sequence prefer it’s for the small display. “I consider it as a really lengthy movie in a means that the episodes are steady and create one lengthy story,” explains Park, who beforehand directed the restricted sequence The Little Drummer Woman. “Beforehand, whereas making a movie you must consider the working time and whether or not you’re within the script stage or the modifying stage. You all the time have to consider what scenes you may take away. With this, I don’t have to do this anymore, which is nice.”