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Variety Reporter: Spike Lee's Oldboy Remake Delayed

A reporter for the Variety entertainment trade magazine reported on Twitter on Friday that production on Spike Lee's remake of Park Chan-Wook's live-action film Oldboy has been delayed until late summer or early fall because of actor Josh Brolin's press commitments for his Men in Black 3 film. Brolin is slated to play the male lead in the film.

The reporter also posted that actor Clive Owen (Intruders, Children of Men, Sin City) will not likely play the villain role of Adrian in the film. Owen was offered the role after actor Colin Firth turned it down.

Director Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X) signed onto Mandate Pictures' American remake of Oldboy in July. Park's film was itself inspired by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi's manga Old Boy.

Variety reported in August that Academy Award-winning actor Christian Bale (The Fighter, Batman Begins, American Psycho) was considering the American remake's villain role. In October, a writer for Variety reported that Mandate Pictures is still filling its female led role for the film since Rooney Mara (The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remake) passed on it.

Mandate Pictures is developing the project with producers Doug Davison and Roy Lee (The Ring, Dark Water [2005], Death Note and Godzilla remake plans) of Vertigo Entertainment and Lee's 40 Acres & A Mule Productions. Mark Protosevich (Thor, I Am Legend) wrote a script, and Mandate Pictures President Nathan Kahane is serving as executive producer.

Variety earlier described the Korean film's story about "a man who's kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years. When he's finally released and begins looking into the reason for his captivity, he soon finds out that his kidnapper has even more torturous plans for him." (The original manga has the protagonist imprisoned for a different number of years and does not have the Korean film's added plot twist ending.) Lee also said that "the ending will be something that the audiences will all be... very happy with. In fact, some may consider it to be a bit darker."

Dark Horse Comics publishes the manga in North America.

Source: Collider