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Tuesday
10Nov2009

Spielberg-Smith 'Oldboy' Movie Not Happening

DateTuesday, November 10, 2009 at 9:49AM
Even though I can't confirm if the recent Will Smith-Flowers for Algernon news is true, if it is, that would limit Smith's ability to do other films, or at least force him to shuffle things around. One movie not affected by this is apparently Oldboy...because that movie is no longer happening.

The nearly always reliable Latino Review says it has heard that DreamWorks and Mandate (studio/prouction company) couldn't come to an agreement on what to do with the original Japanese manga and have folded up their tents. Probably the best thing that could happen, really. More on that in a minute.

It should be made clear that neither Smith nor the studio nor Mandate nor director-producer Steven Spielberg ever expressed a desire to remake the 2003 Chan-wook Park film, one of the better movies of this decade, incidentally. The intention was always to use the manga for inspiration the same way the earlier film did, without really acknowledging its predecessor in this medium.

But since Smith and Spielberg reportedly aren't in the Oldboy business...why not re-release the 2003 vintage, DreamWorks? It made less than a million dollars in the US when it finally arrived stateside in 2005, but even with the DVD market, I'm sure somebody could have a moderate hit - with very, very little overhead - if the film were re-released for a couple months.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment3 Comments |

Reader Comments (3)

good news indeed

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterInstigator

While Will Smith is a brilliant actor, I'm glad he's not remaking Oldboy. If only not to impact the original (which is an awesome movie), I just can't see Will Smith playing any of the roles... he's not creepy enough.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterJosh

I actually would have liked to see this happen, and that maybe b/c I have not seen Oldboy...

I thought Smith pairing with Speilberg is a brilliant combo and one that needs to happen in the near future...

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterSEAN

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