South Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho’s upcoming hand-drawn animation film is about “halfway done,” according to Barunson C&C CEO Seo Woo-sik, who is working on the project.

“Director Bong’s new animation film is halfway done,” Seo told The Korea Herald Sunday after an event held on the sidelines of the 4th Red Sea Film Festival taking place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The festival kicked off on Dec. 5.

This is the first time progress on Bong’s first-ever animated film has been revealed since the director mentioned at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards in March that he was working on the storyboards.

Production is reported to have started this summer.

Bong’s fully CG-animated movie that revolves around deep sea creatures and humans. Bong began screenwriting for this movie in 2018, based on French writer Claire Nouvian’s “The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss.”

Bong, known for his detailed production expertise, drew the entire storyboard by hand, Seo said. Seo kept mum about the exact release date of the film, whose title remains unknown.

A whopping $52 million is rumored to have been invested in the fully CG-animated feature, the largest amount for any Korean movie to date. South Korean studio 4th Creative Party, which has previously worked on Bong films such as “Okja,” “Snowpiercer” and “Mother,” as well as Park Chan-wook’s “Oldboy,” “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance” and “Stoker” is working on the project.

Barunson C&C is the South Korean production firm behind numerous hit movies, including “The Good, the Bad, the Weird” (2008) and “Mother” (2009). Seo also produced the 2016 hit drama “Descendants of the Sun.”

Meanwhile, Bong’s new live-action sci-fi comedy “Mickey 17,” featuring Robert Pattinson, is slated for an April 18 release in Korea on IMAX screens.