Smith/Spielberg OLDBOY Is Dead

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 remember months back when the project was first broached, I was in shock and disgust that Spielberg would even think of such a remake. Why? Then again, why is the brilliant LET THE RIGHT ONE IN being remade? Hmmm? Discussions for another time perhaps. To clarify however, this film was not going to be a remake verbatim of Chan-Wook’s 2003 film, but rather the original Manga penned by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi. I have not read the manga, so I definitely cannot cite specific differences between the two pieces, but Spielberg and co. thought it was perfect for American audiences. So walking to your local Best Buy and picking the original up didn’t suffice Steve? Again, I digress.

So for now we are safe from any more OLDBOY remakes, re-envisionings or re-imaginings at least until Mandate can come to terms with another studio that may not run such a high bargain as Dreamworks. Who knows?

OLDBOY is available for purchase from Amazon and available to rent on Netflix.