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Twitch Site: Dragon Tattoo's Rooney Mara Considered for Oldboy
posted on by Egan Loo
The film website Twitch reported on Wednesday that actress Rooney Mara (The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remake) is being considered for the female lead role in Spike Lee's remake of Park Chan-Wook's live-action film Oldboy. Park's film was itself inspired by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi's manga Old Boy. According to Twitch, Mara has not yet been given a formal offer for this character, who is renamed Marie in the American version.
Mara played the crucial role of Mark Zuckerberg's girlfriend Erica in The Social Network, and she will next appear as the title character in American remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. (David Fincher directed both films.)
Director Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X) signed onto Mandate Pictures' American remake of Oldboy in July, and Josh Brolin is slated to play the male lead.
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.
The trade magazine 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.)
DreamWorks had plans in 2008 to adapt the manga with director Steven Spielberg and actor Will Smith. Soon after Spielberg's planned involvement was made public in 2009, Smith told the Film School Rejects website that Spielberg's team would be adapting the original Old Boy manga, and not remaking Park's film version.
[Via Fandom Post]
