Remember when late last year, fanboys everywhere danced on the grave of the gestating remake of Park Chan-Wook‘s “Oldboy” that had Steven Spielberg and Will Smith attached? Looks like those celebrations might have been premature.
Pajiba has tweeted that their sources tell them that Mark Protosevich (“I Am Legend,” “The Cell“) is about to turn in a draft of the screenplay that has producers Mandate Pictures very excited and they will be taking it right back to Steven Spielberg. That sound you hear? A lot of people gnashing their teeth. But Spielberg already has his next film plotted out, “Robopocalypse,” so Matthew Vaughn (“Kick-Ass,” “X-Men: First Class“) is apparently also on the list as is Danny Boyle should those two turn it down. Those are definitely some big names, but obviously, its fairly wishlist at this point and it remains to be seen if they’ll be interested.
Say what you will about remaking “Oldboy” — we’re pretty curious how they’ll clean up the less savory aspects of the plot for mainstream America — but of those three names, we’d be really curious to see what Danny Boyle would do with the material. That seems like the most inspired choice among the three.
All this said, this project has been in development forever and there are still hurdles to clear for it to even get close to getting in front of cameras, but if this story should remind you of anything, it’s that nothing ever really stays dead in Hollywood.