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Will Smith’s Old Boy is Not Happening
Nerdboy rage took form as Asian film fans were snapping over Will Smith and Steven Spielberg’s plans to adapt the Manga on which the Korean film of the same name comes from.
But the adaptation (not remake) is dead in the water as things just didn’t come together for the project.
My sigh of relief echoed down my vacant and cold street moments ago as I read that the much talked about Will Smith and Steven Spielberg OLDBOY re-imagining is no more. Latino Review reports that Dreamworks and Mandate could not come to terms and the project is essentially scrapped! This could not be better news for our beloved Park Chan-Wook directed revenge with hammers and live squids flick
I know it was the more popular route to be against this adaptation, but I was really curious to see how it would play out with Smith in the lead. He has always been entertaining in action flicks and I have always wanted to see him in something really heavy in the action department.
Sure Smith has whooped some ass in his films, but nothing to the extent of the fisticuffs in Old Boy.
But some people are convinced that Asian films cannot be adapted to the Hollywood Screen, and they will always feel that way until someone does it right. But this was to be another adaptation of the same book and I wanted to see how the two compared, if not just to see Smith in a cool action story.
Even though any movie with the kinds of Spielberg and Smith not happening is sort of sad I really do think this time it was a good thing. This story they just couldn’t have made into a hollywood film.
I love Oldboy (I love Mr. Vengeance more), but the masochistic side of me was curious about this project. It just seemed nothing like a film that either of these people involved would ever make, I’m pretty sure they would have molded it into more of “their type” of movie, but I was curious to see if they may stretch themselves to fit the material, rather than squash the material to fit themselves.
I personally think “The Departed” is superior to “Infernal Affairs” so I had some hope for Speilberg’s Oldboy. Granted, this isn’t a remake, but an adaptation of the manga (which doesn’t include the Korean film’s earth shattering twist, if I remember right) and it isn’t Scorsese helming, but Speilberg, who’s fallen insanely far from his glory days, in my opinion, but I was still intrigued.
I’m not upset by this bit of news, in the least, though.
@ But some people are convinced that Asian films cannot be adapted to the Hollywood Screen, and they will always feel that way until someone does it right.
Well… Mr. Scorcese did win an oscar for one.
Have you really seen Oldboy Rodney?
Yes I have.
Will Smith needs to do more R rated movies. so we can see the other (violent?) side of him
I was just hoping this could be it. sigh..
Thank goodness is all I can say.
who fucking cares…old boy is over rated…and i hate trolls who act like no other white man has seen a asian flick…get a hold onto your furry troll head hater….btw i think old boy was over rated and so on…
ok maybe notover rated but its hard to take a movie serious when the fanbase in north america thinks that they have found some secret gem that no one has ever seen…it gets old fast….i mean u think the first white guy who seen astro boy in the old days went out and brag about how cool he was cause he sen something others havent….gets old fast…and as for saying “Have you really seen Oldboy Rodney?” makes me laugh cause Old boy and all the movies in the series are famous and rodney blogs about movies….pretty good chance he has seen it -)
“hard to take a movie serious when the fanbase in north america thinks that they have found some secret gem that no one has ever seen”
I’ll agree with you on that and extend it to any media (TV etc.).
I didn’t like Oldboy that much…it is OVERRATED for sure.
Just because you didn’t like it, doesn’t mean it’s overrated.
I’m disappointed. This could have been good. As good as the Korean film, I don’t know, but I bet it would have been better than a lot of movies that come out.
I can’t picture Will Smith as a Manga style character at all hahaha. Well unless he’s ever playing a character from the Japanese style cartoon Boondocks =P
“But some people are convinced that Asian films cannot be adapted to the Hollywood Screen, and they will always feel that way until someone does it right.”
I thought Gore Verbinski did an amazing job in the remake for The Ring.
Yeah, I understand why most people would think that.
The only film I’m more obsessed with than the original SAW is Battle Royale, which would go to the chopping block if Hollywood tried to adapt it. They wouldn’t do it with high school kids, first of all, and if they did it would be with college students or prison inmates (oh hai The Condemned and Death Race)
You understand people thinking that, meaning you don’t agree? Battle Royale would never be a good adaptation. Hollywood filmmakers aren’t daring enough to make a film like that. You’re right, they use other cast types like inmates and college students, it’s not quite the same and it loses the intensity of the story. First, we need Battle Royale to have an official DVD in the US so more people can discover the movie (you’d be surprised how many people don’t even know about the movie.) The guy that owns the rights to the film in japan is an asshole and charges too much for the film to be bought and pressed. No big studio will touch and no small DVD company can afford it :(
Good, now lets hope no one else tries to remake it.
Old Boy is one messed up film, I don’t know if mainstream American audiences would be ready for the twist at the end of the Korean film.
He should do a remake of “The Last Dragon”
SHOOO-NUFF!!!!!
Did anyone about fall of their chair laughing at the picture of Will Smith portrayed as Dae-su?
Good, now if the rest of the remakes that are based on foreign films(Like “The Host”, “Let The Right One In”) Hollywood is planning would die off as well. We don’t need another great film butchered in the same manner that Godzilla, The Ring, and The Grudge were.