Hope Comic-Con footage teases Na Hong-Jin’s alien nightmare

Na Hong-Jin gave fans the first San Diego look at Hope Comic-Con footage, bringing Neon’s alien action film to Ballroom 20 during his debut appearance at the convention.

Before the South Korean filmmaker came out, the crowd watched a reel of his earlier films, including The Chaser, The Yellow Sea and The Wailing, set to Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train,” according to Variety.

Na told the panel that Hope shares a metaphorical thread with his past work, while warning viewers not to expect the same style, ideas or story approach. He described the new film as different enough that assumptions based on his earlier movies should be left at the door.

What is Hope about?

Hope takes place in Hope Harbor, an isolated village where a mysterious creature has caused destruction. Police officers and local hunters go looking for the beast, then discover they may be the ones being stalked.

The film stars Hwang Jung-min and Hoyeon, with Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Taylor Russell and Cameron Britton also in the cast. Hoyeon, who became internationally known through her Emmy-nominated role in Netflix’s Squid Game, plays a determined police officer.

Na said casting Hoyeon was among the best choices he made while getting the film to the screen after a decade of work on the project. He told the Comic-Con crowd that Hwang Jung-min suggested her for the part, saying she was special, even though Hwang had not actually met her or known her well.

After that recommendation, Na arranged a meeting with Hoyeon. The director said they read the script while eating takeout, and she soon joined the movie.

Hoyeon did not appear in person at the panel, but she introduced two exclusive clips through a video message. In one sequence shown to the Comic-Con audience, Hwang Jung-min and a group of men move through the battered town, firing weapons before finally seeing the enormous alien hunting them.

The second clip offered a longer chase scene, with a character trying to jump from a horse into a police car while a fanged creature pursues them along a highway. Na said those sequences were not the hardest parts of the shoot. He identified another horseback chase through a forest as the toughest scene to film.

Na also singled out Hoyeon’s preparation for a driving sequence. He said she trained for six months to drive a manual stick-shift car and eventually performed demanding driving at difficult angles herself. Watching it unfold, he said, left him and his director of photography extremely anxious.

During the panel’s question-and-answer portion, Na joked that “90%” of the film’s characters might die, while refusing to say who survives.

Hope premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Neon is set to release the film in the United States on Sept. 9.

Na has already discussed where the story could go next. At Cannes, he said a sequel script had been completed and that he would make another Hope film if given the chance.

This story draws on original reporting from Variety.