Spielberg and Smith plot Oldboy remake | Film | guardian.co.uk

Steven Spielberg and Will Smith are planning to collaborate on a remake of Park Chan-wook's Oldboy, according to Variety. The pair, who have been looking for a project to work on together for some time, are said to be in early discussions about reworking the acclaimed Korean thriller, which centres on a man who is kidnapped and held in a dirty cell for 15 years without explanation.

Smith would play the imprisoned man - Choi Min-sik in the 2003 original - who is freed just as he is about to put an escape plan into practice. He is given money, clothes and a mobile phone and sets out to discover who stole his life from him in order to take revenge.

A direct remake would seem to be particularly dark territory for both Spielberg and Smith, as the original contains a number of family-unfriendly themes and sequences, such as the famous live octopus sushi scene. Spielberg is currently said to be searching for a writer.

The original Oldboy was a huge favourite of Quentin Tarantino, who tried to persuade his fellow Cannes jurists to award it the Palme d'Or in 2004. In the end they plumped for the safer territory of Fahrenheit 9/11. It remains to be seen whether Smith and Spielberg will end up making a similar decision.

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Spielberg..ugh. Worse than Nicholas Cage trying to get cast as Dae-Su.

this must be a joke.

Yeah that sounds dodgy to me. You never know, it could end up being the bees knees but i mean, Oldboy was just released a little while ago, does there really need to be a remake already?

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Said Hamlet to Ophelia,
I'll draw a sketch of thee,
What kind of pencil shall I use?
2B or not 2B?

It's the era of remakes people, deal with it.

let's all deal with it by setting these fuckers on fire.

Speilberg is one of the greatest directors of our time, I wouldn't mind seeing this film in his hands.

I realise that Will Smith does SRS ACTING pretty well these days but I'm thinking this is possibly a step too far for him. Having said that, I'd be a little bit curious to see if he could pull it off.

But not curious enough to want them to actually do it.

inferior wine - fair enough point, but I don't really understand the purpose of remaking a film that's so recent itself, and is also excellent in its own right.

Leave well alone?

__________________
Deux hommes font une promenade amicale. L'un des deux porte un parapluie à son bras.
Il se met à pleuvoir. L'homme n'ouvre pas son parapluie et l'autre lui demande pourquoi.
- Parce que ça ne servirait à rien, lui répond son ami. Il est plein de trous.
- Alors, pourquoi l'as-tu pris?
- Parce que je ne pensais pas qu'il pleuvrait.