A while ago now, it was reported that Steven Spielberg and Will Smith were working on a remake of Park Chan-wook’s Old Boy. Well, technically it was an adapatation of the original Manga rather than a direct remake of the movie, but there’s no getting around the fact that whatever they did with it, Spielberg’s film was going to be compared to Wook’s world cinema hit.
The news certainly ruffled the feathers of fans of the original, so presumably they’ll be happy to hear that it appears Spielberg and Smith’s American version is now completely dead. While Dreamworks had negotiated a rights deal with the Korean makers of the Old Boy film, Show East, a couple of months ago the Japanese owner of the Manga the film was based on, Futabasha, launched a lawsuit saying they are actually the legal owner of those rights and Show East never had the right to negotiate a remake. Show East then promptly shut down and completely disappeared off the radar.
Not long after this Dreamworks announced that despite this hiccough, they were pushing forward with the movie, due to the fact that while Futabasha objected to Show East selling rights it didn’t own, in principle they didn’t mind an American remake. However Latino Review reports that the whole thing has stalled once more, with the two sides unable to come to a deal for the rights to the Old Boy Manga. As a result Dreamworks has simply walked away, which would seem to put the final nail in the coffin of the Spielberg and Smith movie.
As Old Boy was supposed to be Spielberg’s next film, which he was going to make while they completed post-production on The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (the motion capture part of that film is complete, but with all the CG work, the movie won’t be ready for cinemas until Christmas 2011), it leaves the question open as to what Spielberg will actually direct next. Let’s hope he makes up his mind soon.