You will probably recall this time last year when
Steven Spielberg was having something of an existential crisis - trying to push through remakes of
Oldboy and
Harvey, before ultimately giving up the ghost on both when they proved problematic. Both were victims of a mass fury of hate on the blog-o-sphere and nobody was crying over their cornflakes the morning both were announced dead. But nothing truly stays dead in Hollywood, does it?
Pajiba have tweeted (and admiringly got the whole scoop written in 150 characters) that
Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend, The Cell) wasn't detered from the snub last year and instead went to his desk and re-drafted his Oldboy screenplay, which he is about to turn back in at Mandate Pictures. Giddy with the idea they might have another Asian turned Hollywood blockbuster (aka The Departed as a remake of Infernal Affairs) - the studio will go back to
Steven Spielberg with the offer to direct (and presumably hope to catch the eye of
Will Smith again) before moving onto their second choices, Brit filmmakers
Matthew Vaughan and
Danny Boyle. With
Spielberg prepping to make Robopocalypse, we think he will pass, and if Boyle and Vaughn have any sense, they will do the same. I wrote almost two years ago to the day that an
Oldboy remake was a pathetically redundant idea. And nothing has changed in the two years since.