Hope
Is this how it ends?
호프 (2026)
Production
Budget
$46 000 000
Revenue
$41 212 538
Director
Scenario
Composer
Producer
Actors
Hwang Jung-min
Go Bum-seok
Zo In-sung
Go Sung-ki
Hoyeon
Lim Sung-ae
Alicia Vikander
J'aur
Michael Fassbender
Ma'veyyo
Taylor Russell
Ai'dovor
Cameron Britton
Va'migere
Lee Sang-hee
Nak-yeon
Short description
In the remote South Korean village of Hope, police chief Go Bum-seok and officer Lim Sung-ae find themselves protecting a community of mostly elderly residents after outside reinforcements are pulled away and communication with the rest of the country is cut off. Meanwhile, Sung-ki and other villagers head into the surrounding mountains to track a mysterious creature blamed for a series of disturbing deaths, and the hunt turns against them. What begins in ignorance grows into a disaster that spreads from human conflict into something far larger.
Na Hong-jin wrote, produced and directed the film, his fourth feature after The Chaser, The Yellow Sea and The Wailing. Hwang Jung-min plays Bum-seok, Zo In-sung plays Sung-ki and Hoyeon plays Sung-ae, with Lee Sang-hee as Nak-yeon and Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender as J'aur and Ma'veyyo among a credited cast of 34. The film runs 157 minutes and blends action, mystery, science fiction and thriller elements.
Released in July 2026, Hope was made for a budget of 46 million USD and has earned 41 million USD worldwide. On TMDB it holds a rating of 7.4 out of 10 from 81 votes.
What's left behind the scenes
- The filming period was from July 29, 2023, to March 17, 2024. Filming took place in Romania's Retezat National Park, Jeju Island, and the counties of Haenam and Hapcheon.
- The film continues the tradition of South Korean monster movies that become the most expensive productions of their time. In the past, such films included "Yonggary 2001" and "Dinosaur Invasion".
- The runtime of the director's cut of the film is 161 minutes.
- The filming period was from July 29, 2023, to March 17, 2024.
- The sets for the town of Hope Harbor were built in Haenam County, Jeollanam-do Province. Filming was suspended during the harvest and kimchi-making season to avoid disturbing the local residents.
- The opening scene was filmed on a road near Namchanni Village in Jeollanam-do Province.
- Some of the car chase scenes were filmed on Jeju Island and in Hapcheon County, Gyeongsangnam-do Province.
- Since the forests of South Korea are dominated by trees with many short branches, it was decided to film the forest scenes abroad to minimize the use of CGI. Director Na Hong-jin visited about 20 locations before choosing Retezat National Park in Romania.
- The highway where the characters run at the end of the film was shot on an abandoned section of the Gwangju-Daegu Expressway, and the bridge appearing in the frame is the Songgi Bridge, which was the highest in South Korea at the time of its construction.
- A 161-minute version of the film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival. It featured unfinished computer graphics, and the aliens looked slightly different. For the theatrical release, director Na Hong-jin re-edited and shortened two scenes.
- While working on the screenplay, Na Hong-jin looked to films such as 'Fargo' and 'No Country for Old Men' by Joel and Ethan Coen, David Fincher's 'Zodiac', the works of William Friedkin, and the anime series 'Robotech' and 'Evangelion'.
- The producers tried to cut this scene during editing, given that the film was already becoming quite long, but in the end, Na Hong-jin fought for his version.
- The director also admitted that this is one of the few scenes that was in the original draft of the script, and that the film was made specifically for the sake of this scene.
- During the filming of the scenes with horses, about 10 horses were present on set at the same time.
- For the roles of the aliens, Na Hong-jin decided to cast regular actors rather than motion-capture actors, as he believed they would be better suited for the roles in a potential sequel to the first part.
- Director Na Hong-jin decided to add the alien autopsy scene after watching several of Steven Spielberg's films about extraterrestrials.
- The film (or series of films) was originally conceived to show three different perspectives on a single situation.
- The most difficult stunt, which required the most preparation, was the moment when Ko Seong-gi (Cho In-sung) leaped from a galloping horse onto a moving car. However, when it came time to film, the actor performed the stunt with surprising ease.
- The most difficult part for the film crew was capturing fast-moving objects without resorting to computer graphics.
- Before filming the scenes in the forest, actor Cho In-sung underwent knee surgery.
- The forest scenes in Romania were filmed over two months, and the entire crew became very exhausted. Director Na Hong-jin wanted to shoot more, but cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo convinced him that the footage already captured was sufficient and it was time to wrap up.
- The director wanted to cut this scene as much as possible during editing, given that the film was already becoming quite long, but he eventually changed his mind.
- In the scene where Ko Bum-seok runs through the ruined town and drops his ammunition, Hwang Jung-min did it by accident and was certain that the take with his 'mistake' would not make it into the final cut.
- While preparing for the role, Jung Ho-yeon trained intensely for six months and performed almost all of her own stunts in the film.
- For a long scene featuring Jung Ho-yeon's appearance, about 20 takes were filmed from different angles. The most difficult part for the actress was maintaining a new line of sight each time and pointing the weapon in different directions depending on the camera's position.
- The scene in which Park Hae-sul (Lim Hyun-shik) recounts what happened to him in the forest was filmed over two days. The elderly actor struggled to memorize all his lines, so a monitor with the text was placed opposite him.
- Additionally, in 2018, there was a real threat of war breaking out on the Korean Peninsula, so the film was titled 'Hope' as a piece of bitter irony. The director then began to consider how the audience would perceive such a title and added a quote from the Epistle to the Hebrews to the film.
- According to director and screenwriter Na Hong-jin, the film takes place in the 1990s, before the widespread use of mobile phones. He had to do this (and choose the Demilitarized Zone as the setting) because South Korea is quite small, and the characters needed to be in complete isolation from the outside world.
- The character Yang-bae (played by Eum Moon-suk) is partially based on a real fisherman named Yang-bae, whom the director met in the town of Sokcho, where he goes to work on his scripts in peace.
- When Na Hong-jin was writing the screenplay, he tried to reduce the number of times the swear word 'shibal' was used, but he couldn't think of a suitable replacement. During filming, the actors constantly and involuntarily uttered the word in places where it wasn't in the script. During editing, the director tried to cut down on the profanity but decided that it would look unnatural.
- Initially, Na Hong-jin hadn't thought about aliens; he wanted to make an entertaining action movie with a very simple story and shootouts (since this is uncommon in Korean cinema). He wanted the main characters to be villagers with a strong sense of community, and it turned out that aliens provided the most striking contrast.
- The appearance of the first alien to appear on screen differs greatly from the conventional image of them. The director wanted the audience to wonder what kind of monster it was.
- Na Hong-jin began working on the script in 2017, when the issue of immigration was a pressing global concern, which, according to him, strongly influenced the work.
- In the version of the film shown at the Cannes Film Festival, the computer graphics were unfinished and the aliens looked slightly different.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
