Spike Lee officially directing remake of Oldboy

Days like this don't come often for many filmmakers, but even less often for a guy like Spike Lee, who has had no shortage of difficulty finding work despite his status as one of the greats. Earlier today we learned that Lee had started shooting on a film he'd been hiding from us, Red Hook Summer, in which he'll be reprising his role as Mookie from 1989's Do The Right Thing. And now today we get confirmation on a story from last week, that Lee will indeed be directing the remake of Park Chan-Wook's classic revenge thriller, Oldboy.

Mandate Pictures issued the press release, which doesn't say much we didn't already know. Lee's 40 Acres and a Mule will be producing, along with Vertigo Entertainment. The highly regarded script we heard about from Mark Protosevich is still in play, and there's absolutely no mention of Will Smith or Steven Spielberg, who appear to be definitely out of the picture. The story revolves around a man kidnapped and held captive in a hotel room for 15 years without any idea as to why. When he's released one day under the same shroud of mystery, he goes off in pursuit of his kidnappers.

I still have a real problem with Oldboy being remade for American audiences. People still need to take in the glory that is the South Korean original first. But if it's going to get done, I'd rather it be Lee who does it. Other than Inside Man, the vast majority of his movies don't quite make the mainstream, so it'll be interesting to see whether such an uber violent remake of a foreign film can do it.