Not a lot of news here- just potential: Sharlto Copley is the latest in a long line of iconic-accented dudes to be offered the villain role in Spike Lee’s English remake of Oldboy.

If Sharlto accepts he’ll be opposite Josh Brolin in this dark tale of revenge and… icky stuff. Sharlto made his big splash as the comedian-turned-leading-man star of District 9, the surprise sci-fi hit that led to him being cast in Joe Carnahan’s A-Team. In this case he’d picking up a role that luminaries like Christian Bale, Clive Owen, and Colin Firth have been asked to fill. So far none of them have bit, and this choice looks like an attempt to cast the net a bit wider and go for a different kind of villainous tone- Copley has a manic, rougher edge to him than those other guys.

Copley’s schedule is decently filled with his involvement in Blomkamp’s follow-up to District 9, along with a few other (mostly scifi) projects. In any event, this is still only an offer so Copley could opt out and we could be writing about potential Oldboy villains for plenty of time to come. I’ll dig deeper if/when this thing is stone set.

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Source | Variety (via FilmStage)