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Josh Brolin to Star in Spike Lee’s Oldboy

Damon Houx — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:22:40 +0000

Josh Brolin and writer/director Spike Lee have enough respect to quiet naysayers. And that’s exactly what happened when Josh Brolin was cast in Lee’s remake of 2003′s Oldboy. The original is a cult Korean film by Chan-wook Park that won the Grand Prize at Cannes (and is currently in the top 100 films of all time according to IMDb), and originally fans were perturbed that anyone would consider such a remake. But the tide has turned, and there’s new goodwill for the project that comes from Brolin and Lee.

Resentment toward the remake was born mostly of Hollywood snapping up anything Asian and popular after the huge success of The Ring and Martin Scorsese‘s The Departed – a remake of Infernal Affairs – but that cycle of remakes has disintegrated. For a while it seemed like Bong Joon-ho’s The Host was next on the block, but that remake seems to have fallen by the wayside. Sadly, if Lee’s adaptation works, it may clear the way for more remakes.

Brolin was on the shortlist for the project, and recently Christian Bale was mentioned as a lead. The original follows a man imprisoned for thirteen years by an unknown person, and gets out looking for revenge. Though main character appears to be Brolin’s role, the part of the man who imprisoned him is also a substantial part, and could go to someone like Bale.

Have you seen 2003 film Oldboy?

Spike Lee Up for Oldboy?

Damon Houx — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 21:51:00 +0000

Spike Lee recently complained that he couldn’t get Inside Man 2 made, which pointed out that it’s been five years since that film hit theaters. Lee’s mostly worked in the documentary field, though he did make The Miracle at St. Anna, a film that could have been great, but isn’t. Perhaps Lee’s recent talks about money and not working has led to him being in contention to direct the remake of Oldboy, as Twitchfilm noted.

The likelihood of this happening is questionable, if only because the material has been shopped around for a while. Spike Lee – for better or ill – doesn’t have the clout of a Steven Spielberg or Will Smith, both of whom circled the material for a while, so maybe you need a director who will remain faithful to the material’s darker side, or maybe it just can’t be remade in America. If you haven’t seen Chan-wook Park’s delirious original, it’s one of the best films of the last decade, and has one of the great endings of modern cinema. But the heat on doing remakes of hot Asian properties has cooled since The Ring hit in 2002. There was a time where they were buying the remake rights to films that were in pre-production in other countries, but after so many misfires like The Eye remake, or One Missed Call, that interest has cooled.

It’d be great to see Spike back working, though even from his early films he runs hot and cold. That said, Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X, and The 25th Hour are enough to say that Lee’s a master filmmaker. Hopefully his recent stink will get him working again, though his grumpiness and inability to work successfully in the industry is partly why he’s a genius, and partly why he doesn’t work as often. Even at his worst (and he’s made a number of misfires), Spike Lee’s movies have always had integrity.

What would you like to see Spike Lee do next?

Spielberg’s Oldboy is Moving Forward

Krystal Clark — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:00:06 +0000

Some film’s you just can’t stop from being made, especially when Steven Spielberg is it’s driving force. A few weeks back we told you about the legal woes that are currently surrounding the director’s adaptation of the Japanese manga, Oldboy. The book was already produced into a successful live action film by Chan-wook Park, and Spielberg along with Will Smith want to do the same for the American audience. Too bad the manga’s publisher Futabasha is pissed, and are doing everything in their power to keep this from happening.

See what Spielberg has to say about the film’s future after the jump.

Futabasha is suing the Korean production company Show East over the remake rights to the story, since they’re supposed to help produce the English version. Even amidst all the legal turmoil, IGN states that Spielberg and Smith are “moving forward” with the film. If I were them I would be a bit more concerned at this point, and I’m not referring to the drama inside the courtroom.

Apparently, since Futabasha started it’s attack, Show East has closed down and their CEO Kim Dong-Ju is missing! If that wasn’t enough, all attempts to contact the companies ex-staff members have fallen on deaf ears. Everyone seems to be “unreachable.” “We haven’t been able to confirm that Show East is bankrupt, and at this stage we’re not sure what effect this will have on the legal case,” a Futabasha spokesperson said.

This sounds dangerous and suspicious. I know Spielberg and Smith are powerhouses in Hollywood, but do they want to go up against these guys? They scare me, and I’m not even involved.

What do you think of Spielberg and Smith’s decision to continue with the Oldboy?

NEWS: Oldboy Won’t Be a Remake of Chan-wook Park’s Film

Mali Elfman — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:51:15 +0000

Two weeks ago is was announced that Steven Spielberg and Will Smith would be teaming up to remake Oldboy. The reaction was less than positive. The film is a classic and fans were not taking to the idea of a dulled down American remake. Will Smith officially confirmed to FilmSchoolRejects on the red carpet for Seven Pounds that yes he will be starring in version of Oldboy, but it’s not based off Chan-wook Park‘s 2003 version.

Here is what he had to say…

We’re looking at that right now. Not the film though, it’s the original source material. There’s the original comics of ‘Oldboy’ that they made the first film from. And that’s what we’re working from, not an adaptation of the film…,” said Smith.

According the FSR Spielberg will not be obtaining the rights to the film, but to the novel.

So does this mean that they are truly trying to tap into the source of Oldboy and not just slaughter it for an American box office payday? Will this really be a different film? Or is this just a lot of babble?

What do you think? Are you excited for the film?

Source: FilmSchoolRejects

ScreenCrave.com » oldboy

Josh Brolin to Star in Spike Lee’s Oldboy

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