A sequel to last years’ monsteriffic k-horror flick The Host is due in late 2009 as a joint effort between Korean studio Chungeorahm and China’s Stone Man Films. The sequel will reportedly take place in China (man, that monster gets around!)

Original film, which was seen by more than 12 million people and grossed some $60.6 million, was a monster movie with political undertones.

New pic will have to tread carefully to avoid criticizing the Chinese government. Story will concern a calamity caused when people ignore a monster due to their desire for money.

Sounds positively cool.

Ok - this is a request to you, our readership. A work-related request, believe it or not. A client asked us to reproduce some artwork that was done in a particular lettering style known as hyuk pil, a sort of Korean calligraphic lettering that makes letters out of animal shapes. The lettering, which they obtained at the San Francisco Zoo, is pictured below (click for full-size). They would like another set of lettering (with a different name), but nobody here knows how to do it - and they didn’t get any contact info for the artist that did the lettering. So - do any of you know who does this lettering at the San Franciso Zoo? Post a comment if you have a lead.

CNN published a fine interview with Koran filmmaker Park Chan-wook (Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy). Not a lot of dirt in there, but worth a read nonetheless.

“Personally, I think that my normality and the fact that I grew up in a very average environment made me grow tired of it all, and make movies to escape the monotony,” he told CNN.

Park has said that his early movie education mainly came from watching old Hollywood films. Many influences on his work have come from sources outside of cinema, including Manga comics, one of which was the inspiration for “Old Boy”.

“At first when I heard the story, it was about a person who was thrown into the middle of nowhere, without knowing why he was there or how long he would have to stay. I was attracted by this setting. This, for me, was a significant depiction of the condition of human beings. Aren’t we all born to this earth without a reason? And we also don’t know when we’re going to die…I was attracted to this idea for the movie.”

I’m totally down with cloning. Seriously. I’ve always said that any technology that can make copies of Tyra Banks is okay in my book. And if it can do pets, well then you’re making kids and me happy. Or, better yet, how about a test-tube Tyra Banks pet? How’s that a bad thing?

Disgraced South Korean stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk has set up a bio-technology firm specializing in cloning pet animals, a scientist close to Hwang said Wednesday.

Hwang, whose breakthrough human cloning research was later proved to be faked, recently established a new research firm in Seoul, said Park Se-pill, a Cheju National University professor and well-known stem cell scientist. Park said he spoke with Hwang a few days ago.

“He told me that he needs foreign capital to continue his research, but it’s difficult to get it unless he sets up a new research institute and becomes its head,” Park said.

This is not an ecouraging start for Korea’s fledgling space exploration effort. Astronaut Yi So-yeon suffered a handful of injuries when the Soyuz space capsule she was aboard hit a rough patch on re-entry.

South Korea’s Science Ministry said Yi bruised her spinal column and had a minor injury to her neck muscles as a result of the landing in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz TM-11 spacecraft carrying Yi and two members of the ISS Expedition 16 crew made a steeper-than-planned re-entry that subjected the crew to g-loads as high as 8.2 before it landed almost 300 miles short of its targeted landing zone. Russia has convened a state commission to investigate the ballistic re-entry, the second in two Soyuz landings (Aerospace DAILY, April 22, 23).

Yi told a South Korean television interviewer that she was hit by unsecured objects in the Soyuz cabin during the re-entry and screamed out in pain at the unexpected g-loads. She said for a moment she thought the spacecraft had malfunctioned and she would be killed.

I guess that’s why astronauts wear diapers…