By The American remake of Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy has been plagued with enough pre-production problems that it would make any surly koreanophile quiver with joyous schadenfraude, while listening to “Gee” for the twelfth time that morning. (I will never admit to that sentence being informed by personal experience.) After losing its preliminary distributor, director and star, the movie became a Spike Lee joint under Mandate Pictures, a Lionsgate subsidiary. Josh Brolin remains attached to the Oh Dae-su role, while the film’s antagonist has passed from Bale to Firth to Owen, today being reportedly offered to Sharlto Copley.
Honestly, the more surprising the names associated with the project get, the more exciting it becomes, in my opinion. I’m far more interested in the remake helmed by Lee than the proposed one from Spielberg, and Copley, who played so well in District 9 an empathetic protagonist despite his immensely unlikable qualities, could be an excellent answer to the original’s evil-yet-tortured Lee Woo-jin. I hope that the fourth time’s the charm and that this is the casting possibility that sticks.
Pardon the header image, Jamie wasn’t available (and I hate to outshine his skills so flagrantly).
[via Variety]