Spielberg/Smith’s ‘Oldboy’ Abandoned

According to sources close to Latino Review (who broke this piece of news), Steven Spielberg’s version of Oldboy, starring Will Smith, is kaput. No more. Dead. Not going ahead. 

You hear that? That was the collective sigh of relief from hundreds of thousands of fans of the original Park Chan-wook South Korean made masterpiece. The film tells the story of businessman Oh Dae-Su, for the most part entirely unremarkable, who for no reason is kidnapped and without explanation held captive for 15 years. When he is suddenly released, he begins a vengeful journey of tracking down his captors in an attempt to piece back together the puzzle that has become his life.

Around a year ago, the word hit that Steven Spielberg would adapt the original manga comics for a North American audience, with Will Smith taking on the Oh Dae-Su role. Despite comments that the film would depart from Park Chan-wook’s film and follow the manga instead, it’s been almost universal that this is a bad idea. Fans of Oldboy cite the daring, visceral imagery and content of the film as being something that would ultimately suffer, should it be under the direction of mega-mainstream, family-friendly Spielberg and Smith.

According to this source, Dreamworks could not successfully agree on terms with the Korean production studio Mandate, who owns the rights to the story, so Dreamworks has simply walked away.

So what say you, are you glad that this isn’t going forward? Better yet, have you seen Oldboy? If not, get yourself a copy immediately.