Josh Brolin to Star in Spike Lee's Oldboy
Looks like Spike Lee got his rumored dream star for the Oldboy film he's helming: Deadline reports that Josh Brolin will lead the English-language remake of Park Chan-wook's 2003 thriller about a man held prisoner for 15 years who sets out for revenge upon release. With Brolin onboard, will Christian Bale sign on next as his mysterious foil? (And how faithful will Lee's remake be to the brutality of the original?)
Lee's Oldboy is scripted by Mark Protosevich, who most recently earned a co-writing credit on Thor and previously adapted studio flicks Poseidon and I Am Legend. (His first film was The Cell, Tarsem's twisted sci-fi thriller.) It remains to be seen how much he'll keep Oldboy as sick and viciously violent as the cult hit original, which stars Choi Min-sik as the hammer-wielding vengeance-seeker Oh Dae-su, since the remake is said to draw from both the film and the source manga it was based on as a re-envisioning of the material.
The casting of Brolin, however, should bring some comfort to fans; No Country for Old Men went a long way in establishing Brolin's interest in edgier fare and his ability to play hardened, adaptable men capable of violence. Lee's a bit more of a mystery here; will his Americanized Oldboy include the kind of gory, visceral moments that make Chan-wook's version iconic to genre fans? Or will it find a sort of Departed-level happy medium between the gore-inclined sensibilities of Asian cinema and the threshold of American audiences?
Personally, I'd prefer the former but I'm expecting the latter. Chime in below: How much deference to the original film should Lee's Oldboy have?
· Josh Brolin To Star In Spike Lee's 'Oldboy' Redo For Mandate [Deadline]
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Comments
I really hope Bale doesn't sign on.
lee ......come on.... hes a pretentious racist filmaker. hollywood is just going to f-up another classic. the only surprise was let me in..........................Hollywood should stick to hollywood.
Oh god, don't ruin this movie. Its like remaking Citizen Kane, or the Godfather. Why trash a perfect movie... Oh to save a flagging directorial career and make $? That's worth it, isn't it?
And will they have the octopus eating scene in the remake? I doubt it, if its there, its not going to be half as hard hitting/disturbing.
The octopus eating scene probably won't be in there because it's specific to asian culture. so brolin's probably gonna eat a big mac
will suck, and americans who havent seen the original will get a bad impression of it and never see the original, and the movie's reputation will be tarnished forever, thanks hollywood for being too damn uninspired to come up with your own goddamn ideas and resorting to stealing other peoples.
Zack, don't you think you're being a bit dramatic?
Remakes don't ruin the original films. Are they annoying? Yes. Is the thought of the general public knowing a makeshift-duplicate more than the original obnoxious? Absolutely. But for all we know, this could turn out alright.
As far as I am concerned, remaking Oldboy is a SIN. They do have a shitty screenwriter on board but they have an amazing Director and a fantastic lead actor. I won't judge the film itself or make criticism until I see the final outcome (unlike every other online fanboy.)
A perfect movie? Seriously? The ending surprised me, I didn't see it coming but...perfect? I mean..comparing it to The Godfather? I literally laughed out loud at the end of this movie..it descended into absurdity so quickly I could barely fathom it. I'm concerned that people are so desperate for something new, they're turning to anything that does something a bit differently and declaring it pure gold. Personally, I don't think the original director deserves as much credit as he gets. There are quite a few of his peers that I believe could have done it better.
Old boy perfect? Are you kidding me. What a ridicules reason to imprison someone. You might have been the reason my sister, who I slept with killed herself. Ridiculous!! I hope spike finds a better reason for revenge
Lee as director is interesting. the original is highly overrated, so I hope Lee does something different and interesting with it.