Spike Lee has received a heap of criticism for his remake of Park Chan-Wook's 2003 thriller and over recent weeks there has been a great deal of gossip and rumor over who might be starring in the film. Clive Owen is the latest actor to be linked.
The film's chief antagonist has been linked with Colin Firth, as recently as seven days ago, but the Oscar-winner has turned down the opportunity to star in the film, with Clive Owen now offered the chance to step up and perform.
As nice as it would have been to see Firth play a villain Owen is a reliable and solid performer as a bad guy. Owen and Spike Lee have of course already teamed up together in Lee's heist thriller Inside Man. These are of course just rumors at the moment but it wouldn't surprise anyone to see Owen confirmed in the role once it gets out of the development stage.
Lee's version of Oldboy will be executively produced by Mandate pictures whose president Nathan Kahane said "It's a great honour to put this special project into the hands of such a gifted writer and iconic director."
Chan-Wook's Oldboy won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2004 and was the second instalment of his Vengeance Trilogy. Lee is currently working on a new project entitled Red Hook Summer, after the Red Hook area of Brooklyn, New York, which is rumoured to feature a re-appearance of Mookie - the pizza delivery man that Lee played in his 1989 smash hit Do The Right Thing. If confirmed this would mark Lee's first acting appearance in one of his own films since 1999, when had a small role in Summer Of Sam.
We will continue to wait with bated breath for anymore information regarding his Oldboy project over the coming weeks and months.
