News

U.S. Oldboy Producer Aims to Start Production in September

Producer Roy Lee told The Wall Street Journal newspaper's Jeff Yang last week that he anticipates that production on the American remake of Park Chan-Wook's Old Boy film will begin in September. Spike Lee is directing the film with stars Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men) and Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) .

Lee also noted that in 2006, he and Neal H. Moritz were proposing an American adaptation of Koushun Takami's Battle Royale novel but the project went dormant after the Virginia Tech shootings. After the release of Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games novel in 2008 and the subsequent film rights pickup in 2009, the similarities between the two works ended plans for an American Battle Royale remake for good. "Look, there isn't a studio out there that would invest the money to do a Battle Royale feature film remake now," Lee said. "Audiences would see it as just a copy of Games — most of them wouldn't know that Battle Royale came first. It's unfair, but that's reality." Yang noted that Battle Royale author Koushun Takami told ABC News that he appreciated his fans' support in the Battle Royale/Hunger Games comparisons but that “every novel has something to offer."

Thanks to Daniel Zelter for the news tip.

Source: The Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy