Four and half years ago, it was announced that Charlize Theron’s production company had picked up the remake rights to Korean director Chan-wook Park’s Sympathy For Lady Vengeance. But since then, there hasn’t been so much as a peep about the project and when it came up in conversation with some friends just last week, I had surmised that it had probably become just another project that got announced and then silently died in development.
Looks like I spoke too soon, as Deadline is reporting that Theron’s Denver & Delilah Films is joining with CJ Entertainment and Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures to produce the film, which will be adapted by William Monahan. Monahan is no strange to adapting Asian thrillers as his screenplay for The Departed was based off of the Hong Kong crime drama Infernal Affairs. Theron is set to star as a woman who serves out a prison sentence for a murder she didn’t commit only to be released to extract revenge on the true killer.
There are no further details as to when the project will get in front of cameras.
Sympathy For Lady Vengeance is the third installment of Park’s thematic “Vengeance Trilogy,” ond which has certainly found itself fans here in the States for its brutal and bitter look at the effect that seeking revenge could have on someone. An English-language remake of the trilogy’s second part, Oldboy, is currently preparing to shoot early next year with Spike Lee directing.
