There’s a good movie somewhere in the middle of the 130 minutes comprising Spike Lee‘s Red Hook Summer. A focused movie. A movie that has a lot to say about the conflict between younger and older generations, faith versus religion, young love and even technology. That movie is in there. Unfortunately, Red Hook Summer as it currently stands at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival is a bulky, dense and meandering film. It is at times thought-provoking and at others just plain confusing. Read More »
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For years, George Lucas has flirted with the idea of returning to the sort of small, so-called personal movies that he toyed with at the outset of his career, before Star Wars diverted him off the path of the iconoclastic New Hollywood directors and straight onto the blockbuster highway.
Set aside for a moment the fact that every film Lucas has made in the last 13 years has been personal — the Star Wars prequels were done by him, his way, with his money, and the upcoming Red Tails is the product of more than twenty years of interest in the Tuskegee Airmen — and what starts to emerge is the idea that Lucas is tired of being second-guessed, criticized and scrutinized.
And so, after Red Tails is released, Lucas wants to walk away from the high-profile filmmaking world and make the sort of films that his friend Francis Ford Coppola has been making in the past decade. Read More »
It’s great how, with Spike Lee signed as director and Josh Brolin set to play the lead role, the remake of Oldboy went from something I hoped would die a quiet death to a film I’m actually looking forward to seeing. But we’re all going to have to wait a bit longer to see the film, as a delay has set in. The shoot once meant to start in March will now happen later in 2012. Not to worry just yet, as the issue at hand is nothing more pressing than a scheduling issue, but it could have some impact on casting. Read More »
Posted on Monday, December 19th, 2011 by Angie Han
As Clive Owen ponders the villain role in Spike Lee‘s Oldboy, Mia Wasikowska has been offered the female lead of Marie. If Wasikowska accepts, she’ll be starring opposite Josh Brolin, the only star confirmed so far for the English-language remake of the twisted 2003 thriller from Korean filmmaker Chan-wook Park. More details after the jump.
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I’m going to keep this rather short because I don’t think at this point there’s much I can speculate about the Spike Lee remake/new version of Oldboy that I haven’t touched on a few times. The short version is that, working from a script by Mark Protosevich, Spike Lee has Josh Brolin set to play a guy who is kidnapped off the street and imprisoned for 15 years, only to be let out and teased about the identity of his persecutor.
Colin Firth was offered the role of that persecutor not long ago, and to my regret turned it down. The role is slightly more complex than your average angry thriller villain, and I think Firth could have brought a welcome depth.
Now, however, Twitch says that Lee is turning to his Inside Man leading man Clive Owen. The actor has been offered the part, but we don’t know if he’s going to jump for it. Read More »
I think this is pretty disappointing. Spike Lee and Mandate Pictures are prepping a new version of Oldboy for an early 2012 shoot, and the film needs a new villain. Well, ‘villain’ is perhaps the wrong term. Regardless, Colin Firth had been offered one of the major roles in the film, and it wasn’t the ‘hero.’ But Firth has passed on the role, so Lee and Mandate have to find another actor willing to step into the shoes of one of the more interesting antagonists to hit movie screens in a while. Read More »
The possibility of an American remake of South Korean revenge film Oldboy has been a worrisome thing for a few years now. But this year Spike Lee was tapped to direct, which immediately made the new Oldboy a more attractive, or at least a more interesting proposition. With Josh Brolin set to star and Colin Firth playing the film’s revenge-seeking antagonist, things are looking petty damn good.
We know that Mark Protosevich is scripting and that he is basing his take on the existing movie, as well as on the manga that inspired it, but that he’s also writing new material to make this version stand on its own to some extent. We still don’t have concrete details about the new ingredients, but the film’s producer says that some of the new stuff is being created specifically to throw off audiences who know the original film. Read More »
Spike Lee is busy putting together a new version of Oldboy, based on a script by Mark Protosevich that draws from Park Chan-wook‘s South Korean film of the same name as well as the manga that inspired it, with some new material thrown in as well.
Josh Brolin is said to be set for the title role: a guy who is kidnapped off the street and kept in a strange hotel-like prison for fifteen years. Upon his release, the man tries to track down the person responsible for his imprisonment. That path ultimately leads back to one man, who holds a deranged sort of grudge. And an offer is reportedly out to Colin Firth to play that role, which is a great casting choice.. Read More »
