It had been rumoured for a while, but Deadline has now confirmed that Josh Brolin has officially signed up to the remake of Oldboy, which has been set up at Mandate Pictures for Spike Lee to direct. The film, which is based on the popular 2003 Korean film by Park Chan-wook, is set to begin shooting in March.
The film just has time to fit into Brolin’s tight schedule. He will next shoot Gangster Squad for Ruben Fleischer, then he will do Oldboy in March before apparently moving onto Labor Day in June, a film set to star Kate Winslet and directed by Jason Reitman.
The remake originally came about in 2008 where Will Smith and Steven Spielberg were attached. While I’m no fan of the idea of remaking this, Brolin and Lee are better fits for the material than the previously mentioned couple.
To be honest, I hold no great love for the original film, truth be told I think it’s rather overrated. Aside from some striking visuals and a couple of nice scenes I was no huge fan. In fact I think the final twist stretches credibility beyond all bounds and one could hear the narrative cogs groaning. So for me this version of Oldboy with the fresh eyes of Spike Lee is something to get excited about.
The script has been written by Mark Protosevich and is said to have gone back to the manga source for his screenplay. The film has no set release date yet but we can expect to see it sometime in late 2012 or early 2013.
Spike Lee is currently shooting Red Hook Summer and will move onto Oldboy upon completion of that film.
