NEWS: Oldboy Remake is Dead...

I know, for once, Hollywood is answering the prayers of fanboys and girls, as well as just sensible people from across the globe, by officially deep sixing the alleged remake/comic book adaptation of Oldboy.

Latino Review is now reporting that Steven Spielberg’s Old Boy starring Will Smith is officially dead. It looks like Dreamworks and original Korean production studio Mandate were working together to get the rights to the manga from which the original Park Chan-wook film was based, but the two couldn’t reach an agreement, and Dreamworks left any negotiations. Spielberg’s film was to be an adaptation of the original manga by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi, and not a direct remake of Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy.

I just placed the Chan-wook film right near the top of my Top 15 Films of The Decade, so this film is intensely close to my heart. As part of his lauded "revenge trilogy" I, unlike many, feel that this is his best, but not by much, which is saying something for that trilogy as a whole.

Now, the remake wasn't intent and was in no way going to be some sort of direct remake of the Chan-wook film. At the outset, it was discussed as a possible remake, but as reports started to come out, we found out that the film would be based on the manga, from which Chan-wook got the idea for his film. That said, it didn't make the pill any easier to take. It's like wrapping up a spike covered ball in paper and thrusting it down your throat. It doesn't do much to soften the blow of this rather brilliant piece of cinema being remade.

It didn't help that two people were behind it, who were completely wrong for the project. I LOVE Spielberg. He's given me one hell of a childhood, and with films like Jurassic Park and Schindler's List, he's also made some of the most memorable films of the past 20 years. That said, with a film like Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Shitty X-Files Episode, I think that he is much better off sticking to something along the lines of his Abe Lincoln project, which I think is set to be brilliant, especially with him at the helm, instead of this. I also think that with a big name like Will Smith, while I do think the guy has a huge cinema I.Q., the film would probably lose a lot of it's brutality and intensity.

Overall, I'm glad to see this film die a brutal death, like a man getting dropped from the top of a building. Here's the original films trailer:



Go see something good...