Sharlton Copley of District 9 is in talks to play the villain role in the upcoming Oldboy remake. The film already has Josh Brolin in the lead role originated by Min-sik Choi and Mr. Brolin has big shoes to fill. Elizabeth Olsen has already signed on to play the female lead.
Oldboy is being written by Mark Protosevich and will star Brolin as a man who is mysteriously imprisoned for 15 years. One day he's released, given some clothes, money and a cell phone and he goes on a mission to figure out why he was kidnapped. It's pretty much a "who the hell entrapped me and once I find out... HELL WILL BE PAID!" type movie.
First of all, let me just get this out of the way and say that Oldboy is one of my favorite films ever! The whole vengeance trilogy by Korean director Park Chan-Wook is one of the best of all time with Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance putting Park Chan-Wook on the map. Now, with that being said. let me say this --
WHY IS SPIKE LEE MAKING THE AMERICAN REMAKE FOR THIS FILM?!?!?
Nothing against Spike Lee, I admire his work, he is a capable filmmaker but his name would have been one of the last directors I would have glanced at to do this remake. David Cronenberg would have been a good choice but he is on the list to direct Catching Fire or maybe Antoine Fuqua or David Lynch but Spike Lee? Who knows, he may surprise me but nonetheless I'm sad that Oldboy is being remade but whatever.
How will Spike Lee handle the infamous tongue scene? (If you have seen Oldboy, you know what I'm talking about!) We will have to find out when the film is released -- oh wait, there is no release date yet.
Source: Variety