I've been not so secretly praying(and I'm not a religious man) that somehow this proposed remake of the Korean classic, Oldboy, would fall flat on it's face. So much for that idea. Spielberg and Will Smith are pushing ahead with their plans to Americanize the Korean classic, about a man held captive for 15 years for no apparent reason who is finally released and goes off on a bloody quest for vengeance, despite tons of legal entanglements.
The problems involve Futabasha, creators of the original Oldboy manga, alledging that Show East never had the authority to sell the rights or negotiate remakes. What makes matters even worse is that Show East has apparently gone belly up, and none of it's top executive can be found. They've all flown the coop. To make matters more confusing, Cineclick Asia actually negotiated the deal with Universal to remake Oldboy. Universal quickly sold the rights to Mandate, and then finally Dreamworks swooped in and acquired the rights from Mandate in one of their first moves since breaking away from Paramount Pictures. Confused yet?
None of that stuff matters unless a court rules that Show East was in violation in even negotiating to begin with. A Futabasha spokesman says that legal proceedings officially began last week, but with Show East nowhere to be found who knows how that will end up. Dreamworks is continuing on as if the movie will be a go. No word on a release date.
Oldboy is actually the 2nd of 3 installments of Park Chan-Wook's "Vengeance Trilogy". The first being Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, then the final part Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. All three films are excellent, and I recommend checking them out before they get remade into bland action filler.
