Will Smith and Spielberg to remake Oldboy

Steven Spielberg and Will Smith are in talks to collaborate on a remake of Chan Wook-Park’s Oldboy. Spielberg has been looking for an opportunity to work with Smith for a few years now, and this just might be the project. DreamWorks is in the process of securing the remake rights, and Spielberg is on the search for a screenwriter to develop the project. The project was originally set up with Fast and Furious director Justin Lin.

In the 2003 South Korean film, a man named Dae-Su is locked in a hotel room for 15 years without knowing why or who is holding him captive. He is suddenly released, given money, clothes and a cellphone and is sent on journey for revenge. The film won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and was highly praised by Jury President Quentin Tarantino. Roger Ebert called Oldboy a “powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare” … “We are so accustomed to ‘thrillers’ that exist only as machines for creating diversion that it’s a shock to find a movie in which the action, however violent, makes a statement and has a purpose.”

I posted the cool corridor fight scene in one of the Best Fight Scene ever posts. As for this remake it is quite a dark movie for the Fresh Prince and Spielberg to do. What do you think of the news? Do you think they'll change the story to make it a bit more palatable to western audiences?

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