Will Smith says OLDBODY remake, is not a remake
Film School Rejects got a rare chance this week to speak to Will Smith out promoting his new movie SEVEN POUNDS where of course the topic of discussion soon turned to the recently announced Hollywood remake of the Korean 2003 classic movie OLDBOY which we know now will be written by Mark Protosevich (I AM LEGEND) and directed by Steven Spielberg. Smith says it's definitely happening and that it's not their intention to remake the Chan-wook Park movie but are instead looking to adapt the original Japanese manga graphic novels by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya novels for screen, just like Park did when he first stumbled across them.
Were looking at that right now. Not the film though, its the original source material. Theres the original comics of Oldboy that they made the first film from. And thats what were working from, not an adaptation of the film, said Smith.
As I've never read the original source material, I have taken the top google entry for "oldboy manga review", a piece written by Floating Sakura at Manga Jouhou... In comparing the manga with the movie, I see the two are actually quite different, although the general plot line is the same. To be honest, I did enjoy Park's movie more, the way he exaggerates each scene and situation definitely creates more suspense and stirs up more of my interest. However, the way the manga progresses will most likely preserve more of the mystery for later. So for those who have seen the movie, the weird incidents that happen in the beginning of the movie, which begin the mystery, are invisible in the manga. Moreover, in the future, volumes the manga and the movie will diverge from each other completely, eventually leading to two completely different endings. So I suggest to anyone who has seen the movie to treat the two as completely separate and just enjoy each of them on their own.I just wonder in a few years time whether we can say the same and see both versions of OLDBOY separately. Looks like this one is happening folks, this doesn't seem to be one of those trade annoucements that comes, gets everyone agitated and is never to be heard from again. Really feels like Spielberg and Smith are banking on OLDBOY.