Interest
Twitch Site: Director Spike Lee in Oldboy Film Talks
posted on by Egan Loo
The Twitch film website reports that director Spike Lee is in talks for an American remake of Park Chan-Wook's live-action film adaptation of the Old Boy manga. In the story, a man who was imprisoned for over a decade hunts down his mysterious former kidnappers to take revenge. According to Twitch, Mandate Pictures is developing the project with producers Doug Davison and Roy Lee (The Ring, Dark Water [2005], Death Note and Godzilla remake plans) as well as writer Mark Protosevich (Thor, I Am Legend).
Futabasha published Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi's original Old Boy manga between 1996 and 1998, and the Korean studio Show East produced Park's live-action Oldboy film in 2003. Dark Horse Comics published the manga in North America from 2006 to 2007, and the manga won an Eisner Award in the "Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Japan" category in 2007.
Futabasha offered its support, as well as the support of Tsuchiya and Minegishi, to DreamWorks for its 2008 plans to adapt the manga with director Steven Spielberg and actor Will Smith. Soon after Spielberg's involvement was made public in 2009, Smith told the Film School Rejects website that Spielberg's team was adapting the original Old Boy manga, and not remaking Park's film version.
Futabsha sued Show East in 2009, alleging a breach in contract over film rights, while an American company sued Futabasha later that year, alleging that the manga's animation adaptation rights were sold twice.
[Via Cinema Blend]
