Korean auteur Na Hong-jin is finally headed back to Cannes. A decade after his visceral supernatural freakout The Wailing wowed festivalgoers, the genre mercenary is set to return to the Croisette this May with the long-gestating sci-fi thriller Hope, his first film in the events main competition.

Hope was among the 21-title competition lineup unveiled Thursday by Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux at the festivals annual press conference in Paris.

Teasing the project briefly for the assembled press corps, Fremaux said Hope runs over two hours and constantly changes genres while unfurling a story thats no part of history thats ever been told before. Hope, notably, is also Nas first film told partially in English with a mixed Korean and Hollywood cast. It pairs Korean stars Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung and Squid Games Jung Ho-yeon with Oscar-winning couple Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, as well as Bones and Alls Taylor Russell and Mindhunters Cameron Britton.

According to the films official logline, the story begins when police chief Bum-seok, played by Hwang, receives unsettling news from local youths that a tiger has appeared in the hills, a report that erupts into village-wide panic and soon escalates into something far stranger. The story is said to be set in a remote harbor village near Koreas Demilitarized Zone. At home in Korea, the film has been dubbed Nas most ambitious project to date. Hes publicly discussed its potential to spawn some sort of franchise.

The director has said the entire project grew from a single image that came to him while eating in a restaurant in Seoul sometime in 2017. Hope was shot by the locally revered cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo, known for his work on contemporary Korean classics like Parasite and Burning, as well as The Wailing.

Na has steadily climbed the ranks at Cannes to become one of the events favored filmmakers from East Asia. Each of his four features has premiered at the festival. His 2008 debut The Chaser played in Midnight Screenings, the follow-up The Yellow Sea landed in Un Certain Regard in 2011, and The Wailing premiered Out of Competition in 2016.

An unforgettable supernatural thriller that grossed some $50 million worldwide off a reported $6 million budget, The Wailing cemented Nas reputation as one of the most distinctive genre voices working anywhere. His long-awaited follow-up, which he has been developing and producing since 2017, reportedly carries one of the biggest budgets ever committed to a Korean feature with some estimates pegging production costs north of $50 million.

It is an honor, Na said in a brief statement released Thursday in response to his films Cannes selection, adding, I will continue to work hard in the time ahead.

Hope is produced by Nas Forged Films and co-produced and distributed by Plus M Entertainment, the distribution arm of Korean multiplex chain Megabox, with Westworld also co-producing. Plus M is handling international sales, with UTA Independent Film Group partnering on the sale of North American rights. The film is set for a summer theatrical release in Korea.

Hope is the first Korean title to enter Cannes main competition in four years, following Park Chan-wooks Decision to Leave in 2022. Park will be among those judging his compatriots entry, as the Korean maestro was named Cannes 2026 jury president earlier this year.