Steven Spielberg and Will Smith are in early negotiations to remake Park Chan-wook’s 2003 revenge film Oldboy, based on the manga series by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi.
Variety reports the movie will be produced by DreamWorks and distributed by Universal Pictures.
In the award-winning South Korean film, and the source manga, a man is kidnapped and held in prison for years with only a television and the voices of his jailers for company. One day he’s sedated, stuffed into a trunk and then dumped in a park. When he awakes he sets out to discover who destroyed his life so he can take revenge.
If negotiations work out, Smith would play the kidnapped man.
The original manga was serialized from 1996 to 1998 in Japan’s Weekly Manga Action. All eight volumes have been released in North America by Dark Horse.
November 7th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Oh no…this worked really well in Korea because of the content they allow in films, but unless Smith and Spielberg are ready to suffer a super high censor rating, I don’t see this turning out too well.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Oh come on…
November 7th, 2008 at 11:08 am
The film (and the manga) totally floored me. The film shocked, sickened, and wowed me all at once. As Jay said above, I don’t really see how this will work for the skittish censors of American films. Remember we live in a country where many places either objected to or chose not to carry ads for the latest Kevin Smith film because it had the word ‘porno’ in the title.
What a country.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Oldboy is such a great movie. I had no idea it was based on a comic, that makes it even cooler!
That being said, please don’t make an American version. The Korean version is available on dvd just go buy or rent it! It is already an excellent movie that came out in 2003. It’s not the Hulk, no reboot needed!
Seriously, this movie is awesome and as cool as Will Smith is we don’t need a remake 5 years later.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:36 am
This smells like a disaster. Oldboy, and frankly the entire Vengeance Trilogy, are amazing films. I don’t think Spielberg is the right director nor is The Fresh Prince the right star for this film.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Speilberg has been on this kick of tapping Japanese properties. Anime, manga, whatever. I hear he’s a fan, but please just try and make your own stuff!
November 7th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Really. This is a bad idea. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
The Vengeance Trilogy has some themes and values that doesn’t translate very well to the western culture. The things about honor and revenge itself are understandables buy only watching as an outsider.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Reminds me of the Cape Fear remake years ago – Spielberg was attached to that, but handed it off to Scorsese as a better fit for his sensibilities. Regardless of how successful you feel the remake was, it was, at least, a proper way to approach a remake – take the property and make it your own.
Spielberg’s matured as a filmmaker since then, and I trust he sees this property as a way to flex his muscles in such a way as to make it uniquely his own. Will it be watered down from the original? Probably, but there’s nothing that says it can’t have it’s own compelling narrative and intensity.
And if he botches it…well, there’s always the original and people tend to have a short memory when it comes to mediocre entertainment.
November 7th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Here’s something about Old Boy that I’ve noticed. Men have a totally shocked reaction to the twist in it, while women just kind of sigh and say, “Really? I saw that coming practically when the movie started.”
I’d give the credit to V.C. Andrews novels, but not every woman I know who had this reaction has read any.
November 7th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Waitress: “Want me to cook that octopus”
Will Smith: “Aw hell naw!”
It had to be done and I done it
November 7th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
2003. Why is it even an option to remake something thats barely half a decade old??? This is absurd. I hate Hollywood
November 7th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Oh man, cannot wait for a PG-13 version of Old Boy with lotsa of CGI. I’m excited.
Peace.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
I’m sure Spielberg and Smith are going to leave the twist intact.
November 8th, 2008 at 2:30 am
please don’t remake this it’s one of my favorite flicks. it doesn’t really need a remake and it’s just going to be sanitized anyway. I’m usually all for allowing a re-telling but this is one i’d like to see them leave alone.
November 8th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Arrogant hollywood assholes.
November 8th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
psst, dude, they made “the twist” up for the movie anyway, because it sure as hell wasn’t in the original manga.
November 10th, 2008 at 12:54 am
For the love of God, no.
There’s already a lot of American films based on Asian movies (Sassy Girl, Bangkok Dangerous) and they all fell to their predecessors. Maybe except for the Departed, but I still think Infernal Affairs beats the s#it out of that overrated movie any time of the day.
January 17th, 2011 at 9:08 pm
I thought this was a fantastic blog, not only great writing but it has a great layout, well done.