Those of you savvy enough to predict that a planned adaptation of the OLD BOY manga by Steven Spielberg and Will Smith was extremely unlikely to ever be made were RIGHT ON THE MONEY, Latino Review reports. Yet, it was not the idea of two of America’s most beloved filmmakers adapting a bleak, violent, disturbing tale of torture and vengeance that did the movie in, but a squabble between Mandate Films and DreamWorks.
Somehow, we can’t help but feel that the world will sleep a little sounder tonight.
Thank God!
I concur, this could have only ended badly had it been allowed to proceed. I will stick with Chan-wook Park’s Revenge Trilogy entry “Oldboy” (2003).
Seriously. Park’s adaptation was fantastic. It’s been in my top 10 movies since release. When are Americans going to put on there big boy pants and just read subtitles? Who knows.
However, I really liked The Departed…
Well, yeah, I like “The Departed” as well but that was Scorsese! I enjoyed “Internal Affairs” but even I saw that Scorsese took that movie’s core and made it uniquely American. It a way, it acts more like an homage than a US remake.
This is good news, to be sure, but I hope it’s not the end of interest in adapting OLDBOY to the screen. I could not stand Park’s OLDBOY movie, it’s a waste of time. I thought it totally did not capture the look or feel of the OLDBOY manga, which is among my favorite works of recent years. It was some other kind of OLDBOY that was neither here nor there.
I think a terrific, faithful adaptation of OLDBOY has yet to be made and hopefully the right filmmaker will discover the graphic novel series’ charms and translate it properly to the screen. Sam Raimi? Paul Verhoeven? Quentin Tarantino? Coen Bros.? Any of you guys read it yet?
is anyone really shocked that it comes down to….money.