Josh Brolin to Star in Spike Lee’s Oldboy, Christian Bale Also Rumoured
When it was announced earlier this summer that Spike Lee had signed on to direct a remake of Park Chan-Wook’s Oldboy, I think a lot of people found themselves reconsidering a project that they had written off a long time ago. Granted, a lot of the early opposition to an Oldboy remake also stemmed from the fact that Will Smith was attached to star, but now with the project changing studios and gaining a potentially radical director like Spike Lee, it was starting to look like it might not be a complete disaster anymore. Now this week the project has taken another tentative step toward success by nailing down one, or possibly two, solid casting choices. According to Deadline, Josh Brolin has been confirmed for the lead role in the film.
Brolin had reportedly been on the shortlist of actors under consideration for a few months now, as reported by Twitch back in July. While one might assume that Spike Lee would opt for a black actor to headline the film, Brolin was supposedly his top pick all along. It looks like he ended up getting what he wanted, and now Brolin will take over for Min-sik Choi playing a man seeking revenge after being kidnapped and held captive in a hotel room for 15 years.
Variety also reported last week that Christian Bale is interested in joining the remake and that could very well end up playing the villain. This is one of a number of possible post-Batman projects for him, so it will likely come down to scheduling and how much he likes the script by Mark Protosevich (Thor, I Am Legend). What do you think, are you open to an English-language Oldboy remake? Does the casting of Josh Brolin and possibly Christian Bale help sweeten the deal?
Comments (7)
In a word, “Hell mutha fuckin yeah re-cast! Brolin this shit up!!
Posted by Mark II on August 29th, 2011Fantastic.
Posted by Captain N on August 29th, 2011What Mark said. And hopefully they will Bale shit up too.
Posted by Gord on August 29th, 2011Can’t they just leave Oldboy alone?
Posted by Sam on August 30th, 2011Wouldn’t they be better off just making an original film?
The cast sounds amazing, buuuuuuuut, can America please leave foreign movies alone?? It doesn’t make sense to remake a movie that was great in the first place. I can already smell the wave of Japanese ultra violent remakes to come after the success of this movie.
Posted by Logan on August 30th, 2011@Logan I thought Oldboy was Korean.
Posted by Matt on August 31st, 2011Regardless, I think an great movie could come out of all this, if Spike Lee brings his A-game.
Anyway, Is Will Smith afraid to be in violent, R-rated movies? Oldboy and Jango Unchained would hve probably been awesome for him and his career. He certainly hasn’t been relevant in the last 10 years.
Just watch the original, classic movie. Is it being re-made just because lazy Americans don’t want to read subtitles?
Posted by jckfmsincty on September 2nd, 2011Leave a Reply