Park Chan-Wook, Don McKellar driven out by WGA for violating strike rules
The Writers Guild of America announced on Friday that it has driven two members, Park Chan-Wook and Don McKellar, for writing on their HBO mini-series “The Sympatizer” during the 2023 strike.
Park and McKellar have made the series with seven episodes, which in the lead role Hoa Xuande and Robert Downey, Jr. Played and was based on the novel of 2015 of the same name by writer Viet Thanh Nguyen. It was broadcast in 2024. According to the Gilde, Park and McKellar did not appeal.
Variety has contacted representatives for Park, McKellar and HBO for comments.
The WGA also announced that Anthony Cipriano was suspended until 1 May 2026 for writing about “The Last Breath”, which was previously known as “Untitled True Story Haunting – Thiller Project.” Cipriano also received a public censorship and a lifelong ban on serving as a strike captain.
Park, 61, is a South Korean writer, director and producer best known for films such as “Oldboy” (2003) and “The Handmaiden” (2016). His next feature film, a Korean production entitled ‘No other Choice’, will later premiere in the competition at the Venice film festival. McKellar is a Canadian actor and filmmaker who wrote, directed and played in “Last Night” (1998). He has a scenario credit on ‘no other choice’, which he shares together with Park, Lee Kyoung-Mi and Lee Ja-hye.
The WGA previously announced that it had disciplined seven writers for various alleged violations during the strike of 2023. Four of those writers were publicly identified when they chose to appeal, but the other three had remained unknown until Friday.
In a memo of membership, WGA leaders said that the board had “decided that the disciplines should be made public.”
The WGA membership has closely confirmed the expansions of Roma Roth and Edward Drake in May. The members have also approved the suspension of writer Julie Bush. But membership destroyed a public censorship of writer Tim Doyle, accused of behavior of the guild in Leiden when he made a joke that was in a bad taste on a private -makingbook group.
The WGA did not respond to the strike violations committed by Park, McKellar and Cipriano. In the memo, the guild thanked the volunteers who had served in the compliance committee of the strike rules.
“They investigated dozens of allegations of violations and determined whether there was sufficient evidence to send things to the council for further action,” said leadership.
The board and the officers also thanked the members of the various trial committees, who have heard a testimony and made recommendations about discipline to the board.
“All these members have offered their time for the delicate but necessary task to keep writers responsible to pay their obligations to their fellow members according to the strike rules, work rules and WGAW constitution,” said the WGA.
