I think that they can do this and it be successful. Spielberg hasn't done anything like this and I'd like to think that he'd do it justice.

Find a movie that people love and remake it in your own image, throw in Will Smith, Tom Hanks, or Tom Cruise and voila – crap movie remake for the newest generation. Makes me sick.

It’s not even an old movie, and it was done perfectly already, so fans of the Woo movie will not be happy at any attempts by hollywood to revision this story – and rightfully so.

Ok so, up to this point a lot of (brilliant) asian films have been remade (badly). I can kinda see a place for some of them, people want to see how they pull off a remake of the TV scene in the ring, people are curious to see how psycho would fair as a modern version (Vince Vaughn take that god damn stupid wig off!!!), but a film as new and near to perfect for its genre (IMHO) as OldBoy simply doesn’t need a sub-standard remake at any level.

Bah…

First off, I’d like to point out that Vic didn’t write this Oldboy article, I did.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let me offer you a reply to the points that you raised:

You say that this isn’t a remake of Chan-wook Park’s 2003 Oldboy film, and if you’d read my article properly you’d see I mention/discuss that detail. I know it’s being described as a new adaptation of the original manga, here’s a quote from my article to back that up:

“…it was revealed that it wouldn’t strictly be a remake of the 2003 Korean film per se, but rather of the original manga comic…”

My point was that even if it’s not STRICLTY a remake of the 2003 film, it’s still a remake in a sense. It’s semantics in this specific case (I doubt this movie would be on the cards if that 2003 movie didn’t exist) Whether loose or solid, a remake is a remake, with only semantics getting in the way.

You said:

“..the fact that the lawsuit based on the original Japanese manga (and has nothing to do with the Korean movie) should have told you something you clearly aren’t smart enough to see..”

This is wrong. The lawsuit DID have something to do with the movie. The lawsuit was between Futabashi (the comic publisher) and Show East (the 2003 Oldboy movie producer), as they didn’t have the right to negotiate their adaptation for a remake. If this weren’t a remake in any way, why would there have been a lawsuit?

And you say the whole “online movie culture is appalling” because they don’t just report news. In case you haven’t noticed, Screen Rant (and a lot of other sites similar to it) is news + opinion. Of course we (and by “we” I mean online movie bloggers/reporters collectively) have the right to “hate/praise” movies (as you say) – that’s what we do. For traditional “news only” reporting I can suggest such great sites as Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and ComingSoon.net.

We appreciate you taking the time to read our site, even if you don’t seem to give it the thumbs up. I would appreciate it that if you reply to this it is in a civil manner, and not spouting insults that are uncalled for.

To the morons above:

What part of the THIS IS NOT A REMAKE do you not understand? The part that THIS is not a remake or the part that says that this is NOT A REMAKE.

Is every adaptation of Hamlet a remake of the very first Hamlet movie that’s ever been made?
Or could it actually be that there is a VERY CLEAR difference between remakes and literary adaptations?

I would really love it if you actually answered this specific question. I am being serious.

You headline still claims it’s a remake when clearly IT IS NOT. That fits my definition of “spreading idiotic information”. If nothing else, the fact that the lawsuit based on the original Japanese manga (and has nothing to do with the Korean movie) should have told you something you clearly aren’t smart enough to see.

You can cite as many sources you want, the fact that you do not understand what some of these sources are saying speaks for yourself. The only thing that you show is that you have no exlusive information of your own to contribute.

And what did you contribute beside the negativity? Does the world really need another article that links back to the other ones (this is definitely not a problem unique to this site – I’ve been there and have seen it all).

The entire online movie culture is appalling. People who should be reporting news suddenly decided that they are in the position to hate/praises movies according to their biases. I wish I could just go online and get information without having to sort through all the subjective crap that goes with it. (I don’t care that the site is called Screen Rant either. In my mind it doesn’t buy you a license to bs on movies).

And Vic, as far as I’m concerned you don’t have enough brain to make headlines that put this project into the negative light. Words like “Sadly back on track” in the headline are uncalled for.

Don’t critisize that which you haven’t seen ESPECIALLY if you don’t have anything exclusive to contribute.

I am not trying to be a hater. I just feel like these things needed to be said.

This is why i stopped reading themovieblog and started coming here, the main guy over there had all the wrong ideas, he adored remakes and has the most bizarre opinions.

Screen rant rules

Now, as far as i’m concerned, who ever wants to remake Oldboy should be shot in the face.

This put me in a very bad mood, I will NEVER watch this movie!

Really? Among the “absolute worst” at “spreading idiotic information?” So I guess the FIVE sites that were sourced in this article are all guilty of spreading idiotic info as well?

Please do grace us with a bunch of examples of our spreading of said information (since we’re so terrible, no doubt it’ll just take you a couple of minutes to find dozens of examples or more among our 3,000+ articles).

Come on, back up your insult with some evidence.

I’ll be waiting, Mr. High & Mighty Insider.

Vic

This site is among the ABSOLUTE WORST when it comes to spreading idiotic information.

This is not a remake. Nor is this a re-imagening of the Korean movie. I can assure you that Spielberg has no interest in directly re-doing somebody else’s work. This Old Boy will be based on the same source material that inspired the original movie, but unlike that earlier project is meant to be a much more direct and faithful adaptation of the manga. Park Chan-wook’s movie, while great, also greatly changed the original story to fit his own vision (and as a middle part of his trilogy). That said, while the both movies will have the original manga as it’s source material, Park Chan-wook’s movie will remain something completely different and will not figure in this version at all.

An important point that I would like to make is that the original Old Boy manga is very violent and this aspect is not unique to the movie version. There is no desiere on part of Spielberg, Smith or the screenwriter to clean up that aspect of the manga and, in fact, those darker aspects of the material, coupled with the dramatic potential of the story was one of the things that drew them to the project in a first place. This will be an R rated movie.

As far as I know, no date has been set for the relase of this project. If I was pressed to guess, however, I would say that a lot will depend on how soon Tony Kushner will be able to deliver the final draft on Lincoln (which Steven gave Tony pretty much all the time he needs to finish). Lincoln is something of a priority project at the moment but if it’s not ready than Spielberg will put this on the fast track. It is not impossible that we would see both of these movies sometime in 2010.

The fight over rights should be resolved in the nearest possible future. It should neither affect nor significantly delay the project.

I hope this clears up some understandable confusion and helps alter some of the perceptions/expectations associated with this project.

I too liked Sympathy for Mr. and Lady quite a bit but not quite as much as OldBoy.

F-ing Spielberg!! Go make a good Jaws Sequel instead.

I hope Chan Wook Park remakes Schindler’s List with an equally vapid doopey Pop star in the lead role

“I thought OLDBOY was ok…”

I think you’re one of about 17 people to have ever said that:P

I love all three films in the Vengeance trilogy, each have their own qualities and can be admired for different reasons. But to me Oldboy edges out both Mr. and Lady in the Vengeance department (:P) – I think it has the perfect balance of style and substance (I think Lady has the style, while Mr. has the substance).