South Korean director Park Chan-Wook’s revenge thriller has Oldboy has earned it self a considerable fan base here inthe United States. And I think it would be fair to say that most of them are eying the English-language remake with a bit of suspicion. Perhaps some of that will be allayed when they hear what producer Roy Lee had to say in a recent interview with Collider.
Lee stated that the when the film goes into production in March, it will be with a new draft of the script written by Mark Protosevich. Based on both Park Chan-Wook’s film and the original manga that inspired it, the script will also contain a few new surprises.
It’s very similar, but we’ve added new elements. Or, Mark Protosevich has come up with new elements to it that will throw off the audience who have seen the original movie because there are new characters and new situations that present themselves in a way that changes the story but eventually go in the same direction… The ending will be something that the audiences will all be…especially the fans of the original will be very happy with. In fact, some may consider it to be a bit darker.
Ummm… darker? If you’ve seen the original film, you know that it ends on a pretty dark, and downright icky, note. The notion that they have found an even darker place to go than the ending of the film has my head-reeling.Ironically, I honestly thought the original’s ending was too dark and twisted for any Hollywood studio to go for, so for them to be going in the opposite direction as it were is really something to look forward to.
The Americanized Oldboy will be directed by Spike Lee and star Colin Firth and Josh Brolin.
