12.01.2008

oldboy remake will be based on the manga

Some more information about that Oldboy remake that Steven Spielberg and Will Smith are reportedly working on. According to the Fresh Prince, the project will not be a direct remake of Park Chan-Wook's film, but an adaptation of the original Japanese manga: Will Smith Says Oldboy is an Adaptation of the Comic.

Interesting, considering that the South Korean film apparently departed quite a bit from the source material. I'm told that the setup is the same, but the rest is completely different. I don't know if this information satisfies the naysayers. Frankly, when one mentions Oldboy, I immediately think of the Korean film (it's kind of hard to get out of your head)—not the comic book.

I wonder if this is the beginning of something we'll be hearing a lot with this project—the insistence that the movie will be based on Japanese, and not the Korean film. Why do I get the feeling that Will Smith finally got around to watching Park's crazy-ass film, realized what he might be getting into, and said, "Oh, hell no!"

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