OLD BOY (Josh Brolin Speaks)

• OLD BOY

Director Chan-wook Park’s 2003 South Korean revenge pic, OldBoy is an instant classic, and though Spike Lee is certainly capable of great filmmaking, he’s had more than his fair share of flops.  Josh Brolin is set as the lead, Elizabeth Olsen has signed on as the female lead, and District 9 star Sharlto Copley recently landed the villain role.  We haven’t heard much about what Lee’s remake entails other than a promised “darker ending,” but Brolin recently talked quite a bit about the film and his hesitation to remake such a brilliant piece of work. 

Josh Brolin

During the press junket for Men in Black 3, Brolin was asked for his thoughts on the remake and acknowledged the enormity of the shoes they have to fill (via /Film):

“Oldboy? Literally you say Oldboy and my stomach just goes Grrrrrr [mimics twisting and turning]. Oldboy will be an experience, man. It wont be like Men In Black, I’ll tell you that much. I’m really happy about it. We’ve gotten amazing actors: Liz Olsen, who I think is fantastic and we also got Sharlto Copley from District 9 who I think is going to be unbelievable. He just wrote me an e-mail and was like, ‘Look, I’ve got to get this out of the way. Dude, Goonies is my favorite film of all time,’ which I thought was really sweet. And now I’m going to make 20 years of your life miserable.”

Not to fear, though, as the actor went on to note that he sought out Chan-wook Park’s blessing before taking the role:

“I love Oldboy and I’m close with Chan-wook Park and I emailed him a couple months ago, just asking for his blessing to do this movie because if he had said ‘No,’ I wouldn’t have done it. But I really respect his movie and we’ll make a little different movie and this whole idea of a more Hollywood version of it? Whatever. We’re just going to make a different version but have respect to the initial story and premise. I’m looking forward to it, man. I’m talking about it nervously right now because it makes me nervous.”

Oldboy's HammerTime!!

As a follow-up, Brolin was asked if they’d keep the now-famous hammerfight:

“Yes, by the way. Yes. And it’s a hammer and knife and all that stuff. And then will we keep the octopus, will we keep the other stuff? There’s some changes but I think it’s really good. It still makes me throw down the script half way through. Whoa.”