Lee Jung-jae, the star of Netflix’s hit series Squid Game, is making his directorial debut this year at the Cannes Film Festival. According to Variety, his film Hunt will feature its world premiere during the midnight screenings of the festival.
Next month, the film, aka Namsun, will be presented at the festival alongside two other midnight screenings: Fumer Fait Tousser by Quentin Dupieux and Moonage Daydream by Scott Morgen. The majority of films being screened at the festival were announced Thursday at the press event in Paris.
Hunt, a Korean language film set in the 1980s, follows a spy-thriller story that Lee got caught up in after buying the fights and rewriting the screenplay. He also stars in the picture alongside Jung Woo-Sung. His role follows an elite agent working for the Agency for National Security Planning hunting for a North Korean spy. He soon becomes aware of his country’s increasingly dark secrets.
Lee has been an established star in South Korea since the 1990s, but this film marks his first directorial feature. After the international success of Squid Game, Lee collected multiple U.S. awards, including the 28th Screen Actors’ Guild Awards, the Critics Choice Awards, and the Independent Spirit Awards. He soon became the most bankable star in Korea.
The Cannes Film Festival begins on May 17th.