Oldboy Update

Will Smith has been pushed over the upcoming Oldboy remake, and what he had to say is likely to have varying results on people's anticipation levels.

Apparently, the remake won't be of the Chan Wook Park film at all, but another adaptation of the original manga. That means the most basic elements of the premise will be intact, but that the mystery will have an entirely different solution.

So, basically, all of the good work Park and co did fixing up the Manga will definitely be abandoned.

Personally, I think this cements the fact that Spielberg's film will flounder - creatively, of course, not commerically - as the source material will be inferior. On top of everything else going against the film... sheesh.

Of course, some might argue that the film is less likely to be truly offensive now, with Spielberg no longer in a position to graffiti all over Park's brilliant "original". I don't quite see it that way - Park's film will always be, no matter what Spielberg does, and it doesn't matter to Oldboy 1.0 what a turkey 2.0 is, but it does matter to 2.0 what source material it has to draw on.

Incidentally, the 2.0 script is to be by Mark Protosevich, (a) screenwriter of Thor, The Cell and various other things that hardly get my brim wet with the golden nectar of confidence.

Poor old Will Smith.

Hostel 2 Hits A Nerve With The NY Times

The NY Times are making all sorts of spurious connections between Hostel 2 and the Virginia Tech shootings, and pretending Lionsgate are in some way exploiting the tragedy by sticking to Hostel 2's previously announced release date. Tiresome stuff and really very desperate with it.

If part two is anything like part one, this new Hostel is going to provide some much needed commentary on violence, America's attitudes to violence, and the kind of ingrained cultural prejudices that lead to such sickening, blinkered, ignorant nonsense as Old Boy being held up as a catalyst for mass muder. While Hostel is confronting issues head-on, critics of such violent films are hiding from the truth and scapegoating cinema. In certain circles, films like Hostel provoke interesting and informed debate, and in others... The NY Times, Nikki Finke and their ilk trot out the same reactionary wails of foaming hysteria.

The NY Times piece also includes comments for Roy Lee, the producer of proposed American Old Boy and Battle Royale remakes. In this section, the journalist, Michael Cieply, spuriously claims that Battle Royale is a Japanese videogame, not a film - why is this person even allowed to write about films? Was he even listening to his interview subjects?

Cieply has been a film producer himself, in the past - though Alleycats Strike is his only credit on IMDB. At the very least we can be relieved that period is over.