Saturday
22Nov2008
Will Smith Only Mostly Remaking 'Oldboy'
Saturday, November 22, 2008 at 3:55PM
We were as concerned as anybody else by the
recent news that
Will Smith and
Steven
Spielberg were remaking
Oldboy, which should be more well-known than it
is. The most recent news had I am Legend screenwriter
Mark
Protosevich getting on the bus to adapt the script for the remake.
"There’s the original comics of Oldboy that they made the first film from. And that’s what we’re working from, not an adaptation of the film."
Our big question mark was how two of the most mainstream artists around would take a film that has decidedly dark and brutal and make it work. They'd either have to forego a lot of commercialism or a lot of credibility. I haven't read the manga comic, written by Garon Tsuchiya, but it's still the same story. Maybe it's not ultra-violent and that's a transition director Park Chan-wook made on his own.
But it's still going to be about a guy imprisoned for years and years with no knowledge as to why, and then one day he's freed and tracks down the people who locked him up. I'm betting it won't be like The Pursuit of Happyness.
Reader Comments (1)
As much as I enjoy Will Smith, I'm not at all sure Oldboy is his cup of tea. Only going with the movie version, I believe it's entirely too dark for Will Smith. Steven Spielberg could never direct a tale faithful to the original, and again, I'm going by the movie, not the manga, which I haven't read.
I'm thinking more a Christian Bale, with Martin Scoresese or Steven Soderbergh directing.
I am Legend was okay, but not nearly as fantasically amazing as the original, and I don't want Oldboy to be disappointing to the world. Just like The Departed was a very good remake of Infernal Affairs, I'd like to have TWO great movies not one another pale-in-comparision American remake.
Walt D in LV