Colin Firth turns down Oldboy. Good man.
This entry was posted 165 days ago
A couple of weeks ago we reported that, having been unceremoniously ditched by Christian Bale, Spike Lee had turned to crinkled English gem Colin Firth in the hope he’d join his Oldboy cast. A cast that currently consists of Josh Brolin as hero Oh Dae-Su and not Rooney Mara. Firth was offered the (wildly inappropriate) part of antagonist Adrian, and we all clenched our hands and hoped to the very skies that he would turn it down. He has. Whew.
Look, Spike, it’s about time you read the signs. No-one wants your remake, OK? The idea of Josh Brolin trying to recreate the infamous squid-eating scene with what will probably be some gourmet sushi is soul-burning, and as for tampering with The Corridor Fight Scene (you know which scene we mean) – frankly it’s grotesque. We’re certainly glad that we’re not going to have to watch Firth get around the final showdown by doing lovely English talking in place of any combat whatsoever (oh come on, he was never going to get gnarly), but the danger remains, ever hanging, like some horrifyingly relevant final narrative twist. Who’s next on your wish list? Anne Hathaway? Is that what you want? ‘Anne Hathaway stars in Oldboy as Adrian’? You’re sick. Just stop it, Spike Lee. Go back to making substandard films like Miracle At St Anna and leave Oldboy alone.
Maybe the snark of the post is just meant to be a humorous but boiling America’s most influential black filmmaker to “that guy who made miracle at st anna” is just wrong.
I’m not the biggest fan of an oldboy remake but blaming it all on Spike Lee as if he dreamed up the idea is incorrect. Especially as only months before accepting the job he stated that he couldn’t get funding for films he wanted to make, so maybe taking this job is a way of trying to get some something else going.
Also why do you want him to go back to medicore St. Anna when the man has made Do the right thing, 25 Hour, Inside Man, When the levees breaks etc?
I’d rather Spike Lee take the mantle and try something, then have it palmed off to an unknown music video director. A later blog post on here seems happy about an updated American Pyscho remake by a second unit director!*
To add to this, the production looks like it’s trying to pick decent talent to make it a somewhat worthwhile endevour. Would you rather him picking nobodies?
Lee at his best can be a powerful and energetic director and like so many foreign cult hits that make a splash elsewhere, the number of people who have actaully seen and enjoyed things like Oldboy is small when the figures are brought out.
Also why doesn’t anyone think this may get others to seek out the original? That’s a good thing, no?
*the post were written by two different people but still!
Sorry by the post I mean the posts!