Spielberg’s Oldboy is Dead
Dreamworks manga adaptation called off
Steven Spielberg’s proposed Oldboy adaptation has been pronounced “dead” by latinoreview.
The moot project, which was to star Will Smith, hit snags in negotiations between Korean studio Mandate and Spielberg’s Dreamworks; the American media giant simply walked away rather than barter any further.
Originally a Japanese manga comic by Nobuaki Minegeshi and Garon Tsuchiya, Oldboy came in to the cinema-going public’s conscious with the 2003 film version directed by Korean auteur Chan Park-Wook. The widely popular film, seen by over 3 million people in South Korea alone, was also a huge critical success winning the Grand Prix prize at Cannes and gaining rave reviews from the likes of Quentin Tarantino.
The bleak story centres around a man, played in the film by Choi Min-Sik, who hunts down his mysterious former kidnappers who have held him hostage for over a decade in a shabby hotel room with no explanations given. The bleak and violent tone of Park-Wook’s film appeared at odds with the saccharine style of cinema employed by Spielberg which explained his intentions to adapt the original manga comic as opposed to creating a direct film remake. The manga does not feature some of the film’s more unsavoury aspects including, but not limited to, eating live octopus and incest.
Spielberg meanwhile is keeping himself busy with a number of projects including Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn. The film, also based on a comic strip albeit a Belgian one, is due for US release on December 23, 2011.
Source: lationreview
