It looks like Will Smith and Steven Spielberg are soldering along with their ill-advised remake of the sensational Korean film “Oldboy.” In an interview with MTV News, Smith says, “It’s the thing that Steven was attracted to… We’re working from the comic and we haven’t done anything other than talk about it. So we’ll see what happens, but he’s not going to do anything that would be less than stunning.
What does this confirm? Well, for starters, the film is not imminent, as Smith and Spielberg have done nothing but “talk about it” (Smith: “Here are my list of ‘no’s'”) so it could still die on the vine. Also, this quote confirms a previous rumor, that Spielberg and Smith were operating from the graphic novel source, which, without spoiling things, doesn’t feature the absolutely demonic twist of the film, and is considered by manga fans to be significantly weaker than the movie it inspired. In other words, Smith and Spielberg are near-guaranteed to be ditching one of the greatest endings of any recent film in favor of a pedestrian chase story. Like Smith and Spielberg, the MTV article has greatly misrepresented the film as an “action picture,” so we hope you aren’t swayed by that, and if you haven’t seen the original, please go rent “Oldboy” now so you, too, can voice your hate over this creatively bankrupt remake.