Spike Lee is readying the release of his reimagining of the Korean cult classic Oldboy and has spoken to Collider about how he sees it as more of a reinterpretation than a remake in order to keep the film fresh.
Lee revealed that he never got the chance to meet original director Park Chan-wook, “I never got to talk to Mr. Park. I’m a Professor at NYU and he showed Stoker the same night I was teaching. He don’t speak English. I don’t speak Korean. So we were working through his assistant and we just couldn’t make it happen to meet each other.”
The casting of Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men) was also borne out of a series of incidental meetings over the span of four years: “I can’t imagine anybody else playing that role. For a period of four years he would come to New York for a premiere of a film. So four years in a row, I’d go to these premieres and I’d always meet Josh at the after party and say ‘oh, I love your stuff lets work together.'”
Oldboy is set for release on November 27th in North America and December 7th in the UK and finds Brolin looking for vengeance after being kidnapped for twenty years for no apparent reason. Also starring are Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene), Sharlto Copley (Elysium), Samuel L. Jackson (Django Unchained), Richard Portnow (Law Abiding Citizen), Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos) and Lance Reddick (The Wire).
Originally published November 19, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
