Since I had a feeling more news about Spike Lee’s Oldboy remake was going to surface, I waited a little bit to post the news that Sharlto Copley had been offered and accepted the role of the villain in the film. He will be playing opposite Josh Brolin, who has been cast as the kidnapped lead, and Ashley Olsen, the female lead (but for those who know the story, you know what that means).
Now here comes the juicier stuff. During the press junket for MIB 3, Brolin was asked about the remake and here’s what he had to say:
“Oldboy? Literally you say Oldboy and my stomach just goes Grrrrrr [mimics twisting and turning]. Oldboy will be an experience, man. It wont be like Men In Black, I’ll tell you that much. I’m really happy about it. We’ve gotten amazing actors: Liz Olsen, who I think is fantastic and we also got Sharlto Copley from District 9 who I think is going to be unbelievable. He just wrote me an e-mail and was like, ‘Look, I’ve got to get this out of the way. Dude, Goonies is my favorite film of all time,’ which I thought was really sweet. And now I’m going to make 20 years of your life miserable.”
He goes on to talk about his relationship with Chan-wook Park and how he would have declined the role if he didn’t get his blessing:
“I love Oldboy and I’m close with Chan-wook Park and I emailed him a couple months ago, just asking for his blessing to do this movie because if he had said ‘No,’ I wouldn’t have done it. But I really respect his movie and we’ll make a little different movie and this whole idea of a more Hollywood version of it? Whatever. We’re just going to make a different version but have respect to the initial story and premise. I’m looking forward to it, man. I’m talking about it nervously right now because it makes me nervous.”
Lastly, someone followed up about the famous hammer scene and if it will be included. The answer is yes and, if you haven’t seen the original, it’s an incredible scene:
“Yes, by the way. Yes. And it’s a hammer and knife and all that stuff. And then will we keep the octopus, will we keep the other stuff? There’s some changes but I think it’s really good. It still makes me throw down the script half way through. Whoa.”
Oldboy is one of my favorite films of all time and I’m glad to know that Brolin is apparently a massive fan as well. Any actor that asks for a director’s blessing and still gets nervous when talking about the remake before filmming even begins has proven that he actually cares about the project and doing it right. I’m still against the remake but I find solace in Brolin’s statements.
via /Film
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