By I just have a hard time believing that even with Will Smith and Steven Spielberg’s star power behind this movie, that it just cannot be as good as the Park Chan-wook’s hit Korean film:
Steven Spielberg and Will Smith are moving forward with plans for a remake of “Old Boy” despite a complex, behind-the-scenes rights wrangle involving the Japanese publishers of the original manga and the Korean producers of Park Chan-Wook’s 2003 cult hit.
Futabasha, publisher of the manga by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya, has filed a case against Show East in Seoul, alleging the Korean company never had the right to negotiate a remake.
The issue is further complicated by the fact that Show East has shut down and its CEO, Kim Dong-Ju, has disappeared. Big Egg, a co-producer of the ultra-violent revenge flick, has also closed up shop, and its former staffers are unreachable. [The Ampersand via @Koreality]
If you haven’t seen the Old Boy movie I highly recommend you do so because it is one of the most twisted thrillers you will ever have seen.
4:39 pm on June 27th, 2009 1
The Spielberg / Smith movie is based on the original Japanese manga which is considerably different than the Park Chan-wook film. It's not a remake of the film, the two films will just share the same source material.
"We're looking at [Oldboy] right now. Not the film though, it's the original source material. 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." -Will Smith