Spike Lee In Talks To Helm Oldboy Remake

If you have seen Park Chan Wook's original Oldboy then you know that it wouldn't exactly seem like a natural fit for Steven Spielberg and Will Smith. But they are the heavy hitters originally in line to bring an American remake(although their version was said to be a more direct adaptation of the original Manga) to the screen. Well, Spielberg is out but Twitchfilm reports that another high profile director may take his place..

Twitch has learned that Spike Lee is currently in talks to direct the long-rumored Hollywood remake of Park Chan-Wook´s Oldboy.

Word of a US remake of the Park Chan-Wook revenge classic first surfaced in 2008 with word that both Steven Spielberg (in some capacity) and Will Smith were eyeing the project and now it appears to finally be moving ahead.

Smith was in line to play lead character Oh De Su(Shinichi Gotō in the comic) and may still be interested, as he did recently pass on Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained. If you haven't seen the original or are unfamiliar with the story here is a rundown..

Old Boy​ (オールド・ボーイ Ōrudo Bōi?) is a manga series written by Garon Tsuchiya and illustrated by Nobuaki Minegishi. The narrative follows the protagonist Shinichi Gotō, a man who, after a decade of incarceration in a private prison, is suddenly freed. After his release, Gotō must find his captors and discover the reason for his confinement. Old Boy was serialized in the Futabasha magazine Weekly Manga Action from 1996 to 1998 with a total of 79 chapters among eight collected volumes released during that time. The series was picked up for North American localization by Dark Horse Comics and released between 2006 and 2007. The manga was also adapted into an award-winning South Korean film in 2003.

The Korean original is up there among my favorite movies and Spike Lee among my favorite directors, so needless to say I really hope this happens. What do you guys think?

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