Oldboy
Oldboy has been getting the Hollywood treatment for a long long time. But it is now finally in production, after a slew of line up changes. And now, before Brolin has even graced our cinema screens wielding a hammer.... Lady Vengeance has went into pre-production.
If you haven't heard about the Oldboy remake, the film has been in limbo since 2008. Brief History: Justin Lin was attached as director, then Universal and DreamWorks decided they were getting the rights with Spielberg directing and Will Smith(shudder) starring. Smith then announced Spielberg wasn't remaking the film, he would be adapting the original manga(eh?). In June 2009 a lawsuit was launched against the Korean film producers by the original comic publisher for giving the film rights to Steven Spielberg without their permission. In november Speilberg, Smith and DreamWorks pulled out of the remake. The project was announced dead.
Fast forward to July 2011 when Mandate Pictures issued a press release with the intriguing information that Spike Lee would direct and Josh Brolin would star in the remake! Also attached to the project are Samuel L. Jackson, James Ransone and the brilliant young Elizabeth Olsen. The villain has been cast as Sharlto Copley, who played Murdock in the A Team reboot.
Now the Oldboy remake sounds a lot more promising than we all originally thought.
In South Korea, born and raised. With this hammer is how I spent most of my days...
The cast are all well suited especially Brolin as the lead who has always impressed! And Spike Lee as director is an interesting choice, he is definitely more about the art of film and not about a quick cash in, which can only be a good thing!
There will still be people who hate the remake no matter what. But for more assurance read this very interesting interview with the excellent Josh Brolin at Collider.com were he talks in detail about how much he respects the original Oldboy and Park Chan Wook's work as a director.
Oldboy has a US release date of October 11, 2013.
Lady Vengeance
It was a shock to most when the Lady Vengeance remake was announced. Charlize Theron's production company Denver & Delilah Films actually purchased the rights to the Lady Vengeance remake 4 years ago! And now Charlize has been confirmed to play the lead role. The script writing duties is going to William Monahan who did a fantastic job adapting the Hong Kong Thriller Infernal Affairs into the Academy Award winning The Departed.
This remake news has made fans of the original Vengeance trilogy a little happier than they are with Oldboy. Charlize Theron can definitely act, and she can go to that dark place like she did in Monster. As for Monahan, his script for The Departed was spot on, and it pleased the majority of fans of the original Infernal Affairs flicks. In an interview Monahan said "This will be very American and very unexpected. Park is a genius; it's the Everest of adaptations and I've got blood in my teeth to do it."
Sounds convincing to me! Watch this space for more news as it surfaces!
This remake news has made fans of the original Vengeance trilogy a little happier than they are with Oldboy. Charlize Theron can definitely act, and she can go to that dark place like she did in Monster. As for Monahan, his script for The Departed was spot on, and it pleased the majority of fans of the original Infernal Affairs flicks. In an interview Monahan said "This will be very American and very unexpected. Park is a genius; it's the Everest of adaptations and I've got blood in my teeth to do it."
Sounds convincing to me! Watch this space for more news as it surfaces!
What? No love for Sympathy For Mr Vengeance?
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