25 Nov, 2008
Hollywood Oldboy Film Returns to Manga Roots
Posted by: David In: Anime News| Manga News
Here’s a bit of good news for the Hollywood version of Oldboy: It’s not going to be a remake of the film. Instead, it’s going to be based on manga. From TwitchFilm.net:
The American Oldboy will not be a remake of the Park Chan Wook film but will instead be a fresh interpretation of the original Japanese manga - source material that Park himself strayed significantly from. So, not a remake but a different version from the same source. Continue reading at TwitchFilm.net
Here’s more from Will Smith, courtesy of FilmSchoolRejects.com:
Oldboy Manga
Will Smith: “We’re looking at that right now. Not the film though, it’s the original source material. There’s the original comics of ‘Oldboy’ that they made the first film from. And that’s what we’re working from, not an adaptation of the film…”
Apparently Spielberg wasn’t acquiring the rights to the film Oldboy, he was acquiring the rights to the original source material of the graphic novel ‘Oldboy.’ Continue reading at FilmSchoolRejects.com
I’m glad this was cleared up, because I didn’t think there was any way it could compare to the original film. What do you think?
I hadn’t paid much attention to this film, but this enthuses me. Respect for the source material and the presence of Will Smith? Definitely good signs - Smith can do well even in the presence of bad or mediocre material, and if the film’s crew is looking to actually respect the original works, moreso the better.
Now that Hollywood is looking at Japan so eagerly, I wonder what’s next in the adaption train . . .
DragonScholar - I agree. When it was originally announced, they didn’t indicate that it would be anything other than a remake of the film. Which sounded kinda dumb ’cause it’s so good but a lot of the concepts probably wouldn’t sit well with western audiences. Now that it’s clearly an adaptation of the manga, it’s sounds a lot better.
The original Korean movie was really very tense. I don’t know if the Hollywood version will match up to it, even if it’s from the comic book adaptation.