‘Squid Game’ director working on ‘even more violent’ film

Fans of “Squid Game” should not hold their breath: the second season’s script has yet to be written, and creator Hwang Dong-hyuk revealed Monday that it will most likely not be released until late 2024.

“I have to work on season two. Hopefully, I can show it to the fans by the end of 2024,” the South Korean writer-director said at the MIPTV festival in Cannes in the south of France.

He had acknowledged a day earlier at the Canneseries festival that he had only written three pages of the script for the sequel to the violent mega-hit.

“Squid Game” features contestants from marginalized parts of society competing in traditional South Korean children´s games for money — with the losers put to death.

In October, Netflix said that 142 million customers (about two-thirds of its total users) had seen the show, a record that necessitates a second season.

However, Hwang originally scripted the show as a feature film in 2009, and it was only until Netflix came in South Korea in 2016 that he was persuaded to turn it into a TV series.

It was not easy for him to rewrite the script for seven months, he claimed.

It was hell. Maybe season two will be my last series,” he said with a laugh.

There were plenty of benefits to success, however, with Hwang getting a chance to meet his “idol”, Steven Spielberg, who told him he had binged the whole show in three days.

“He said he wanted to steal my brain,” Hwang said.

Hwang is also working on a film that sounds not too far removed from his hit show.

“KO Club” is a film about killing old people, based on a book by Italian author Umberto Eco.

Hwang said it was “even more violent than Squid Game”.

“I will need to steer clear of elderly people after its release,” he added. (AFP)