Yesterday, we got news that Giancarlo Esposito, the character actor who broke out as Gus Fring in Breaking Bad, will be joining the cast of Bong Joon-ho's enthusiastically anticipated Netflix movie, Okja. That now seems to be the first of a few bits of new information we're getting about the monster movie, as THR has revealed a pretty crucial part of the plot to the movie. What we knew so far about the story is that it concerns a little girl, Mija, who faces off against a nefarious international corporation who wants to kidnap her best friend. THR confirms that the best friend in question happens to be a gargantuan, genetically manufactured pig named Okja.

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Image via Fox Searchlight

The mind races to imagine just what this massive swine will look like in Joon-ho's vision, and it will be interesting to see if the film ends up being a classic monster movie or a revisionist take, not unlike Joon-ho's sublime The Host. On top of news of what Okja is, we also know that Tilda Swinton will be playing twin characters in the film, not unlike her recent performance as twin Hollywood gossip columnists in  Joel & Ethan Coen's wonderful Hail, Caesar!. Swinton will be playing the head of the company coming for Okja, as well as her twin sister, while Esposito will be taking on the role of her right-hand-man.


That's a double Swinton on top of a cast that already includes Jake GyllenhaalPaul Dano, Devon Bostick, Lily Collins, Byun Heebong, Shirley Henderson, Daniel Henshall, Yoon Je Moon, Choi Wooshik, and Steven Yeun. We do know that Gyllenhaal will be playing a zoologist and Dano will be playing an animal activist, but we're not exactly sure how everyone else will figure into the movie. For the time being, I'm just enjoying all the decisions that are being made around the film, including the movie debuting on Netflix. To find out that the monster is a beloved giant pig is almost too perfect, and it doesn't help my impatience to see this thing finally come together.

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Image via Madman
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Image via The Weinstein Company