Jang Joon-Hwan's next movie
...will be called 'Fartman.'
I am so not kidding. It's about a little boy who farts so often and whose farts are so smelly that he becomes isolated, and even his parents find it hard to endure the smell. In the end, he decides to go into self-training and meditation at a mountain and returns as a superhero.
Q. When is this going to be made?
A. It's been delayed. I was going to write the script quickly last fall and make it this year, so we could release it next year, but the script has been delaying us. We'll crank in next spring, and since the CGI and editing will take us a while, I think the release is probably going to be summer 2008.
Q. This idea has been in your head for about ten years, right? You seem to hang on to ideas.
A. I wrote the synopsis when I became a professor's assistant after graduating from the Film Academy...it's a shame when there's something good and you can't make it. It's nowhere except in my head. I want to show it to people.
Q. Is the title decided?
A. It's not 100% final, but I think we'll go with Fartman. Sounds best in Korean.
Q. What was the other project you were doing at Sidus productions?
It's a fake documentary, called 'The Little Mermaid.' We're assuming that mermaids are coming out onto the shore. The story follows an investigation of the corpse of a mermaid discovered at the beach in Pusan; the mermaid was a princess of Atlantis. I was thinking of a low-budget digital movie with interviews and undercover investigations, but making the mermaids turned out to be difficult, so I've put the idea on the shelf for now...
Q. Mr. Cha Seung-jae (rep. of Sidus productions) once said that, 'Jang Joon-Hwan is Mozart, Bong Joon-ho (director of 'Memories of Murder' and 'The Host') is Salieri.' Do you find the analogy uncomfortable?
A. I'm not the genius, Bong is. He just said that because Bong is so diligent-not really what you'd expect from a genius at all. As for me, I know the road I have to take, I just can't finish it easily. When I work I pull out my hair and abuse myself. A real genius wouldn't do that.
(excerpts from Jang Joon-Hwan's interview at Cine 21 magazine)
I cannot wait for this.
The interview was in September, and he said that they were still working on the script, so they probably haven't begun shooting yet but... whatever.