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PARK Chan-wook’s Hollywood debut Stoker is set to have its world premiere at the 2013 edition of the Sundance Film Festival, the United States’ most important film event and long considered the Mecca of American independent filmmakers. Traditionally, Korean films have not featured prominently at the festival though in recent years both the documentary Old Partner (2009) and KIM Jee-woon’s revenge thriller I Saw The Devil (2010) were featured in the lineup.

 

2013 seems to be a more auspicious year for Korea at the esteemed event. Last week it was announced that Jiseul, the multi-award winner from Busan, was selected for the festival’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition and it will now be joined by the long-awaited debut of PARK’s first English-language film.

 

PARK and a number of the film’s stars will attend the premiere during the festival, which runs January 17-27 in Park City Utah. The film, based on a screenplay by Wentworth MILLER and starring Nicole KIDMAN, Mia WASIKOWSKA, Mathew GOODE, and Jacki WEAVER is about a young girl who loses her father (WASIKOWSKA), her unstable mother (KIDMAN), and the mysterious uncle (GOODE) who fills the void but may be harboring ulterior motives.

 

Early 2013 will act as a considerable litmus test for the wave of Korean cineastes hoping to break into Hollywood as KIM Jee-woon’s US debut The Last Stand, starring Arnold SCHWARZNEGGER, will also be bowing in January. Meanwhile BONG Joon-ho’s Snow Piercer, recently acquired by The Weinstein Company at the American Film Market, has yet to settle on a date but may go on release in the summer after a spring festival premiere. Stoker, which was produced and is being distributed by 20th Century Fox, is slated for general release in the US and UK on March 1.