Chan-wook Park Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Looks like our friends over at Latino Review have some news on that Oldboy remake that would have starred Will Smith with Steven Spielberg directing. The initial news about this remake (which actually would have been an adaptation of "the Japanese manga by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya") had fans of the uber-violent and disturbing cult film confused and distressed, to say the least. (Okay, irate. They were irate.) I haven't read the manga, but I find it hard to believe that it would be any easier to adapt for a Smith/Spielberg-type audience than the movie Oldboy itself. Either way, it's bananas.

So fans can rest easy because a trusted source has tipped off LR that the whole shebang is as dead as a doornail because "Mandate and DreamWorks didn't see eye to eye, therefore DreamWorks has apparently walked away." And the thing with Latino Review is that their trusted sources are, well, trustworthy, so expect more details soon -- and stories in the trade papers that will claim the same scoop. Tomorrow.

I just don't get the appeal of remaking foreign films for US audiences, especially now that services like Netflix and GreenCine can bring whatever obscure film you just read about on your friend's Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr to your home in a matter of days. Although it could have been fun to see Will Smith eating a live octopus and disposing of enemies in exceedingly violent ways while under the direction of Steven Spielberg, it's still insulting to assume that American audiences are somehow not smart enough to find these movies on our own. Or, gasp, read subtitles! Oh, the horror.

Those of us who were in a moderate panic following the news of a planned Steven Spielberg-Will Smith remake of Chan-wook Park's singular Oldboy can rest a tiny bit easier. According to Will Smith, who's out and about promoting Seven Pounds, the film is in the works -- but it's not a remake after all. Film School Rejects has the money quote:

"We're looking at [Oldboy] right now. Not the film though, it's the original source material. There's the original comics of Oldboy that they made the first film from. And that's what we're working from, not an adaptation of the film."

I'm not sure it makes that much of a difference; an American version of Oldboy is an American version of Oldboy. But at least now Park's film might be able to stand as a companion film to the eventual Hollywood behemoth, without the studio trying to make everyone forget that it exists. I don't have the same hope for, e.g., the Matt Reeves remake of Let the Right One In, which I am actively dreading. Oldboy is something Hollywood can do well, if differently; Let the Right One In can only go badly.

If you haven't seen Park's Oldboy, I strongly recommend a rental. It's pretty unique, and has at least one utterly jawdropping action scene. You know which one I'm talking about.

Here's how badly I remember the G.I. Joe cartoons I watched daily as a kid: in seeing this new casting headline, I immediately thought the G.I. Joe movie was primarily filling women roles first. See, my bad memory had me thinking Storm Shadow is a female. I guess because the name sounds like Eye Shadow, or is reminiscent of Shadowcat (though somehow not reminiscent of The Shadow) and Storm, both being female X-Men. But now I know. And knowing ... well, in this case it's the whole battle. It is half the casting news, though, and thanks to another great Latino Review exclusive, we hear that Storm Shadow (brother of Snake Eyes) will be played by Korean "Mega Star" Byeong-Heon Lee (aka Byung-Hun Lee). Asian cinema fans might be familiar with Lee from Ji-woon Kim's A Bittersweet Life, Chan-wook Park's J.S.A.: Joint Security Area and/or from Park's segment "Cut" from Three ... Extremes, in which he starred as the film director. He'll also be seen in the upcoming Josh Hartnett-starrer I Come with the Rain. In G.I. Joe he will be playing Japanese; Storm Shadow is Cobra Commander's ninja bodyguard and assassin, though the character has been known to have loyalties to the good guys, too.

As for the other half of the casting news, this one is really a woman. A very beautiful woman, in fact. Playing the hot, red-headed Scarlett (what? you never thought cartoons were hot?), is former model Rachel Nichols, who two or three of you may have seen this year in either P2 or Resurrecting the Champ (she also appears in the upcoming, likely more popular Charlie Wilson's War). Nichols is perfect for the role of G.I. Joe's super-smart martial arts expert, and sometime team leader, as she's not just good-looking. Did you know she graduated from Columbia with a double major in math and economics? Of course, she'll have to adequately pull off a Georgian accent, but really all we care about is that she looks good holding a crossbow -- not that Scarlett would like us to think of her only as a sex symbol; she'd remind us that, "beauty may only be skin deep, but lethal is to the bone."

UPDATE: IESB has received official studio confirmation that the above casting rumor is indeed true. Head over there to read Paramount's statements.

It's official. Berlinale has announced the six contenders in their film competition. Those in the running include some Berlin favorites as well as American repeats. Here is the list of nominees:

• The Good German -- which has received mixed reviews in America -- is directed by Steven Soderbergh and stars George Clooney (a Berlinale regular), Cate Blanchett, and Tobey Maguire. The film takes place in a post war Berlin where an investigative reporter finds himself in the center of a murder mystery. The controversy continues when unexpected people from his past become inconveniently intertwined.

• The Good Shepherd is an interesting pick to say the least. Robert DeNiro both stars in and directs a film that has yet to receive any noteworthy appreciation. Matt Damon (not my favorite) and Angelina Jolie (strangely miscast) play a couple who is ultimately torn apart by Damon's occupation with the CIA. It also takes place in the 1930s; maybe Berlinale is dwelling in this era a bit this year?

• German director Christian Petzold will be showing his second Berlinale nominated film Yella. The storyline profiles a woman who wishes to escape a life that refuses to stop following her no matter where she relocates.

• Irina Palm starring Marianne Faithful is the second film made by Belgian director Sam Garbarski. Faithful plays a struggling widow who takes a sex position in order to survive.

• Goodbye Bafana is an intriguing true-life story about the prison guard who protected Nelson Mandela during his internment. Billie August directs as Joseph Fiennes plays James Gregory, the prison guard.

• Last but not least is a film from South Korean director Chan-wook Park. I Am A Cyborg But That's Ok tells the story of a woman living in a psychiatric hospital who believes she is a cyborg (this may be about me soon due to my recent obsession with Battlestar Gallactica). During her stay she falls in love with a man suffering from mental ailments of his own.

During most of this decade, Park Chan-wook has been busy with his revenge trilogy, which has made him a world-wide name. First, there was a little Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, which was followed by more revenge in Old Boy. Finally, it was time for Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. After all that revenge, Park used his vision to create an atypical love story about a girl who thinks she's a Cyborg, and a boy with a robbery addiction. The setting: a mental hospital.

The film is either titled "Cyborg Girl," or "I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK" -- I am guessing that this is one of those times of tricky translation. It is not your average gloomy, dank, white asylum flick. Cyborg is actually Park's first film to garner a general admission rating. The trailer, which is available through Twitch, contains a lot of color without it seeming too much like a gumball explosion. Park attributes this to pulling the luxurious out of the ordinary. Su-jeong Lim might be dressed in a plain shift, but with her white eyebrows and blue-black hair, she manages to make even a potato sack sparkle.

JoongAng Daily just released a brief interview with Park, while he was finishing up post-production for the December 7 release. While the quirky aspects in the trailer make the film seem like one of those strange, oft-dismissed Japanese films, Park's discussion of salvation and youth says a lot about the possible depth of the movie. Yesterday's cyborg might have been that big, Belgian Van Damme, but it seems like today's version comes in a much smaller, feminine package.

[via Twitch]