hankyoreh

The producer of the South Korean monster movie "The Host" said Monday that it is now in preproduction on a sequel to the blockbuster hit, aiming for its release in 2008.

Chungeoram Productions said shooting will begin in the fall, but with a different director. Bong Joon-ho, who wrote and directed the 2006 hit, will not join in the sequel since he is already working on a different movie.

"The full-scale production will begin this fall," said Choi Yong-bae, executive producer of Chungeoram.

While computer graphic effects in "The Host" largely depended on The Orphanage, a visual effects company in San Francisco, the sequel will use homegrown technology, he said.

"We already started analyzing work with a local company," he said. "The computer graphics technical know-how has been accumulated in making 'The Host,' and we believe it's quite possible to make the CGs (computer graphics) locally this time."

The producer plans to spend about 10 billion won (US$10.7 million) on the film, roughly the same as the 11 billion won spent for the previous one.

The original movie tells the story of an ordinary family of five running a kiosk along Seoul's Han River, whose lives suddenly change when the daughter is lost to a monstrous creature that has been mutated by toxic wastes from a U.S. military base.

The film, a combination of genre-bending style, flawless directing and subtle political rhetoric, has been screened in theaters around the globe, including the United States, throughout Europe and in India.

Even North Korea issued a statement praising the movie for its critical stance toward the U.S. troops stationed in the South and dubbing them the "monster of the Han River."SEOUL, June 18 (Yonhap News)