Son Suk-ku, Ha Jung-woo to portray Roh Tae-woo, Chun Doo-hwan in Netflix film

Netflix has greenlit "The Generals" (working title), a political drama from director Yoon Jong-bin, with Ha Jung-woo and Son Suk-ku attached to star, the streamer announced Monday.

The film follows the late former president Roh Tae-woo, who held office from 1988 to 1993 and was the last South Korean leader with a military background to take the country's top job.

Son will play Roh, described by Netflix as a man who "always stood just to the side of absolute power."

Ha will take on Chun Doo-hwan, the army general who seized control of the country in a 1979 coup and ruled as a dictator until 1988.

The two were classmates at the Korean Military Academy and longtime allies. Roh, then a division commander, threw his troops behind Chun's December 1979 coup and went on to serve as his right-hand man through eight years of authoritarian rule.

When mass protests forced the regime to allow a direct presidential vote in 1987, Roh ran as Chun's handpicked successor and won the country's first democratic election, helped along by a fractured opposition.

Both men were convicted of insurrection and treason in 1996 over the coup and the deadly 1980 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Gwangju. They were pardoned in 1997 and have since died — Roh in October 2021, Chun a month later.

One of the leading Korean filmmakers of his generation, Yoon has built a career on stories of men jockeying for power in shady corners of Korean society.

Yoon has teamed with Ha on nearly every project since his 2005 debut "The Unforgiven." Their previous collaborations include the gangster drama "Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time" (2012), the period actioner "Kundo: Age of the Rampant" (2014), the Cannes-premiered Cold War thriller "The Spy Gone North" (2018) and the Netflix series "Narco-Saints" (2022).

Son, who broke through in his late 30s with the 2022 series "My Liberation Notes" and has since headlined "A Killer Paradox" and "D.P.," recently picked up a Sundance jury prize for the Sony Pictures Classics-acquired "Bedford Park," his English-language debut.

Rounding out the cast are Ji Chang-wook ("The Worst of Evil," "The Manipulated") as a junior military academy officer at odds with Roh; Hyun Bong-sik ("Narco-Saints") as a classmate close to both Roh and Chun; and Seo Hyun-woo ("Decision to Leave") as a prosecutor in Roh's inner circle.

"The Generals" is produced by Moonlight Film ("Narco-Saints," "Nine Puzzles") and Sanai Pictures ("Hunt," "Revolver"). A release date has not been announced.