Universal, Verbinski To Play Host
Gore Verbinski is on board to remake THE HOST at Universal, per VARIETY. The 2006 Korean thriller directed by Bong Joon-ho broke records in its South Korean theatrical run.
Commercials director Fredrick Bond will be making his feature debut and Mark Poirer will write the script. Verbinski will produce with Vertigo's Roy Lee and Doug Davison along with Paul Brooks.
The original film, titled GWOEMUL, followed a town terrorized by a giant mutant squid creature created from river-borne toxins from a military base. When the creature grabs a little girl, her dysfunctional family bands together to save her. "It processes a few genres together, and visually it feels close to the stuff I've made over the last few years in commercials, the tonality of humor and the scale," Bond said.
Bond has worked on campaigns for Nike, Adidas and Levi's, and was looking for a project to do with Verbinski. Verbinski has the film set up at Blind Wink Productions at Universal, where he is also developing an adaptation of videogame BIOSHOCK.