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Steven Spielberg, Will Smith Discuss Remake of Oldboy (Updated)

The Variety entertainment trade news source reports that famed director Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws) and action star Will Smith (Independence Day, I Am Legend, Men in Black) are dicussing a possible collaboration to remake Chan-wook Park's 2003 Oldboy film. Park himself had adapted his film from Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi's award-winning manga about a man who was imprisoned for over a decade and now hunts down his mysterious former kidnappers to take revenge. Universal Pictures had originally optioned the remake project, but the project has since found a new home at Mandate Pictures. Spielberg is reportedly still looking for a writer, and hopes to have Smith play the main character.

Dark Horse Comics published the manga in North America from 2006 to 2007, and the manga won an Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Japan in 2007.

Thank you to Daniel Zelter for the news tip.

Update: Variety reported last April that Spielberg's enthusiasm for a remake of Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell cyber-police manga was a pivotal reason why the manga's publisher (Kodansha) chose to work with Spielberg's DreamWorks company on this other remake project. The Hollywood Reporter newspaper noted last week that the Ghost in the Shell remake project remains at DreamWorks despite DreamWorks' corporate separation from its longtime distributor, Paramount Pictures. Paramount would still have the option to co-finance and co-distribute the Ghost in the Shell remake if it goes forward.