Spike Lee hasn’t directed a film since 2008’s Miracle At St. Anna, and it looks like he’s getting behind the camera with a vengeance with the announcement of two new projects.
First off is studio Mandate officially announcing what we knew last week – that Lee will be directing an English-language remake of Park Chan-Wook’s Korean revenge film Oldboy. Here’s their press release –
Mandate Pictures announced today that Spike Lee (Inside Man) will direct OLDBOY, a remake of the highly-acclaimed South Korean film. Mark Protosevich has adapted the screenplay and will co-produce. Roy Lee and Doug Davison (The Departed, The Grudge) will produce. The film is a Vertigo Entertainment/40 Acres & A Mule Production. Mandate President Nathan Kahane will executive produce.
“It’s a great honor to put this special project into the hands of such a gifted writer and iconic director,” said Kahane.
OLDBOY tells the story of a man who is kidnapped and imprisoned on his daughter’s birthday. For fifteen years, he is held captive, and, upon his release, must begin his journey to find the reason for his imprisonment. He soon finds out that his kidnapper has plans for him more tortuous than his solitary confinement. The original film, released in 2003, directed by Chan-wook Park won the Grand Prize Jury Award at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.
Before Lee can get to work on Oldboy, however, he’ll have to finish the film he started work on today.
Seeing as how this project seemed to have sprung up out of nowhere, there’s not a lot of information about it floating around. Blackfilm, however, is reporting that the film is entitled Red Hook Summer and that the actor will be reprising his character of pizza delivery man Mookie from his debut film Do The Right Thing. Blackfilm cites a source stating that the plot of the film “centers on a adult from Atlanta who comes and spends the summer in Red Hook section of Brooklyn, NY.”
OK, maybe it is not a straight up sequel to Do The Right Thing, but more a story set in the same cinematic universe, a la a majority of Kevin Smith’s films. Interestingly, Lee is also an Atlanta native who transplanted to Brooklyn as a young man, so there may be an element of autobiography in the film. We’ll see.
