"Hope" (Надія), a South Korean science fiction action thriller pairing Squid Game actress HoYeon Jung with real-life couple Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, opens in Ukrainian cinemas in IMAX format on September 3, 2026, before moving into wide release across the country on September 10.
The film is directed by Na Hong-jin, known for hard-edged thrillers, who this time took on a genre blockbuster on a scale Korean cinema had not attempted before, according to distributor Green Light Films and UNIAN, which detailed how the production came together.
Five Years From Idea To Filming
"Hope" began with a single image, a person watching news coverage of a disaster in a restaurant and realising it is happening right outside their window. Na Hong-jin wrote the script relatively quickly, but it took the team another five years to reach filming because of the project's scale.
The team had to work out not only the story but also how to shoot it, from complex action sequences to a technology that could combine live actors with digital aliens. The aliens themselves took the team almost seven years to develop. They built a separate language and alphabet for the creatures and designed their appearance to reflect each character's personality and backstory.
A $46 Million Budget On Screen
The budget for "Hope" exceeded 70 billion won, roughly $46 million, making it the most expensive Korean production in history at the time of its release.
The money shows on screen. The production brought in the XM2 team, which has worked on the "007" and "Mission: Impossible" franchises, to handle the action. Filming used electric bikes, wire-cam rigs suspended on cables for dynamic shots, and a slider system capable of reaching speeds of 200 km/h.
Casting Hwang Jung-min And HoYeon Jung
Hwang Jung-min was the first actor cast. Na Hong-jin had already worked with him on "The Wailing," the South Korean thriller not to be confused with the American Scream slasher franchise, and effectively wrote the role of Beom-seok with him in mind.
Hwang Jung-min was also the one who recommended HoYeon Jung, known for the first season of "Squid Game." After a two-hour conversation with the actress, Na Hong-jin knew he had found his Seon-ye, a police officer who ends up at the centre of the chaos.
HoYeon Jung still had to be convinced to take the role. Once she signed on, she did more than show up as a star: she learned weapons handling and tactical movement, earned a driving licence covering vehicle mechanics, and completed a drift intensive so she could perform her own car stunts.
Fassbender And Vikander Become Aliens
Michael Fassbender ("Inglourious Basterds," "Prometheus," "Shame," "The Killer," "Black Bag," the X-Men franchise, the series "The Agency"), Alicia Vikander ("Ex Machina," "The Danish Girl," "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "Tomb Raider," "The Queen's Gambit"), Taylor Russell ("Escape Room," "Bones and All") and Cameron Britton ("The Girl in the Spider's Web," "Mickey 17," the series "Mindhunter," "The Umbrella Academy," "Marvel's Spider-Man Noir") all play aliens in "Hope." For them, that meant an entirely new process of motion capture and facial capture, in which their movements and expressions were transferred in real time onto digital characters.
Fassbender was the first to go through it. When he finished his first take, the team saw his facial expressions appear instantly on the alien character through a live feed, the moment the team realised the technology worked.
The system picked up even the smallest shifts in gaze and expression, meaning the digital creatures in "Hope" are not simple CGI but are built on a specific actor's physical performance.
Filming In Remote Mountains
For the fictional town of Hope Harbor, the team assembled locations piece by piece: a village built in Haenam, forest scenes shot on Jeju Island, and the largest sequences filmed in the Retezat forest in Romania.
Getting there was almost as demanding as making the film itself. The Retezat location was seven to eight hours from Bucharest, and around 200 crew members lived at an altitude of roughly 2,000 metres before travelling another hour on dirt mountain roads to reach the set. There, the team filmed horses, chases, gunfights, explosions and crashes, with the actors themselves performing much of the action.
Cannes Premiere And Critical Reception
"Hope" brings together elements rarely found in a single Korean film: a $46 million budget, international stars, large-scale practical action, motion capture and extensive visual effects. At its centre, though, remains the style of Na Hong-jin, the director behind "The Wailing," "The Yellow Sea" and "The Chaser."
The film had its world premiere in the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received a six-minute standing ovation.
UNIAN frames that reception as the clearest context for the film: Korean cinema no longer asks permission to compete on the global stage, it simply enters on its own terms. Films including "Parasite," "Squid Game," "The Wailing," "Decision to Leave" and "No Choice" have shown how far the industry can go, and "Hope" takes the next step by applying that approach to a large-scale science fiction action film.
The film currently holds a score of 6.9 out of 10 on IMDb, while Rotten Tomatoes lists a 77% approval rating from critics. On Metacritic, it has a score of 68 out of 100, corresponding to "generally favorable reviews."
