When I first heard of the Steven Spielberg/Will Smith reboot of Chan Wook Park’s Oldboy I assumed it would be one of those things that gets mentioned in the trades once and then is abruptly never talked about ever again – much like the first six times they tried an English remake of the 2003 Korean revenge thriller.  But I should’ve known better, when it comes to Spielberg-directed Will Smith-starring vehicles, Hollywood tends not to mess around.  And lo and behold, they weren’t.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, Big Willy Style and Steverino have picked up writer Mark Protosevich to pen the remake.  Protosevich is the writer behind big summer adventure flicks I Am Legend and Poseidon but also wrote Tarsem Singh’s The Cell which while it wasn’t the greatest movie ever made, it was pretty cool and had a lot of the style that a good Oldboy remake is gonna need behind it.

The bad news for Oldboy enthusiasts such as myself is that even with Protosevich signed onto the project its not likely that Oldboy will start up anytime soon.  Dreamworks still hasn’t fully completed the acquisition with Mandate for the film’s rights and if Spielberg is going to direct  at this point it seems a likely follow up to his big-screen adapt of TinTin (which with recent developments is lightyears ahead of Oldboy in getting to production).  But as they say… patience is a virtue.  Hang in there, gorehounds.