We reported last week that Steven Spielberg and Will Smith’s proposed remake of Park Chan Wook’s Oldboy looked like it was going to get derailed by a legal dispute over ownership of the film rights.
Althouh the rights were sold on to Hollywood by Show East, the Korean company that made Oldboy, the Japanese owner of the Manga the film was based on, Futabasha, has launched a lawsuit saying they are actually the legal owner of those rights and Show East never had the right to negotiate a remake.
Things have been further complicated by the fact that Show East has now shut down and its CEO has disappeared.
Despite this, Spielberg and Smith are moving forward with their remake, which will be based more on the Manga than Park Chan Wook’s movie, in the hope the rights issues can be sorted out. It seems they believe the problems can be worked through, as it appears Futabasha doesn’t object to Hollywood making a movie of its Manga, purely that Show East should have never have been the ones selling those rights.