Comics-Old-BoyA few details are emerging about the troubling news that Steven Spielberg and Will Smith want to remake OLDBOY, the disturbing film about a man who is locked in a room for years and then released to take vengeance. Spielberg is producing, and Smith is starring. First, I AM LEGEND co-writer Mark Protosevich is on board to script, reteaming with Smith. Next, Smith told Film School Rejects that the film will not be a remake of the Park Chan-wook cult favorite, but is rather going back to the source; the OLD BOY manga by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi. Quoth Smith:

We’re looking at that 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…,” said Smith.


Hm, is this Smith paying homage to the popularity of comics-based films? Anyway, it’s hard to imagine Smith making a movie with the sensibility of a manga or hardcore Asian action film, so by the time the US version comes out, it will probably resemble something based on an OLD BOY cereal box.

9 COMMENTS

  1. You know what? Let him. My bookstore started selling beaucoup copies of “I Am Legend” by Richard Matheson as soon as the movie was announced. Even moved a few copies of the graphic novel. Same with that stinker of a movie, Love in the Time of Cholera. It’s like that old joke… More people bought the soundtrack than saw the movie? More people read the book than saw the movie… Even something as tangential as “History of Violence” sold a case or two. (Now if I could just do something similar with that crappy musical adaptation of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”…)

    It doesn’t matter how bad a movie is, because people will realize somebody spent millions of dollars to adapt a good story into a motion picture. Wll Smith? Steven Spielberg? 100 copies in one year, easy. And that’s what it’s all about… getting people to purchase and read comics.

    Besides, as with any remake of a foreign original (or any remake), you can still watch the original.

  2. When will they realize that re-makes aren’t as good as the originals. Remember “Vanilla Sky?” One reason the movie was so terrible was because of Tom Cruise, but the rest was just a mess. Watch the original, “Open Your Eyes” it is a totally different film and it’s fantastic. How about “The Eye?” Once again this suffered from the same Hollywood treatment. I think the same thing about “Insomnia”, “War of the Worlds”, “King Kong”, “Death Race”, “The Flintstones”, etc, etc. Please come up with original stories. What are writers for?

  3. In fairness, the OLDBOY movie has not a great deal – other than basic plot setup – to do with the manhwa, so a version more heavily based on the latter would be pretty different.

    (Unfortunately for me, I found the manhwa unspeakably boring, and will likely feel similarly about the Smith film.)

  4. The flinstones wassn’t a remake, Blackeye–it was an adaptation of the tv show. But I do agree. Original Wicker Man was amazing. Nicholas Cage Wicker Man was horrid.

    The original Stepford Wives was amazing, the Nicole Kidman/Bette Midler version of The Stepford Wives was dreck.

  5. The flinstones wassn’t a remake, Blackeye–it was an adaptation of the tv show. But I do agree. Original Wicker Man was amazing. Nicholas Cage Wicker Man was horrid.

    The original Stepford Wives was amazing, the Nicole Kidman/Bette Midler version of The Stepford Wives was dreck.

  6. I ask myself the same question over and over… Why remake a good movie? There’s no way in hell Will Smith will ever grow a set big enough to re-create the ending of OLDBOY. And even if he did… Why would he? How can he replicate the same shock? Is it even possible?

    Americans seem to like their shock and awe, as long as it’s inflicted on someone else.

    I fear similarly for the American remake of the fabulous vampire film from Sweden, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, because I do not think it’s possible to improve upon it. But that’s a book, not a comic, so into the gray zone with you!

  7. again: it ain’t a remake, as much as “lord of the rings” ain’t a remake of the ralph-bakshi-movie. it’s an adaption (of an already adapted book, yeah, but so is “i am legend”).

    the japanese manga and the korean movie are pretty different, not just with a different ending, but also with a differing plot and a VERY different level of action and violence.

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