Warner Bros is going to try to be the first folks to actually get a Park Chan Wook remake done – they’ve gotten involved in an attempt to remake Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, to be produced by noted humanitarian Lorenzo Di Bonaventura. This is, to my knowledge, the third Park Chan Wook film to try to become American – there’s a remake script of JSA: Joint Security Area floating out there somewhere (which moves the action to the US/Mexico border) and of course Spielberg and Will Smith wanted to remake Oldboy for a hot second there. UPDATE: It’s the fourth remake, and it rounds out remakes of all the films in the vengeance trilogy. I was reminded that Charlize Theron was attached to a remake of Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.
I’m past the point of remake outrage, but I retain my remake confusion. Why remake Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance? I really like the film, but it’s very much a style piece. The story, besides being really dark, is very weird and filled with odd flourishes and moments. Like, would a major Hollywood movie have a scene where a bunch of kids masturbate to what they think is the sound of a woman cumming but the camera glides through the wall to reveal she’s actually in horrible pain? I think that would make Lorenzo’s head explode.
So it seems likely they’ll gut the thing and put their own ‘spin’ on it. So why remake it? It’s not like the movie has any name recognition in the US. Maybe they just wanted the very cool title? Or maybe they’re all a part of the lemming-like stupidity of modern Hollywood that sees an existing property and feels safer working with that. Which makes zero goddamned sense, but it’s how these fuckers think. I liked them better when they were on coke and throwing Natalie Wood off boats.
via Screendaily
7 comments
How the fuck would a US/Mexico remake of JSA work?
It's not like the Korean situation where one country threatens to nuke the other off the face of the earth if someone so much as sneezes over the wrong side of the border.
What is the threat in the remake? One country threatening to make more Robert Rodriguez childrens movies?
I'm interested to see if the mentally handicapped character stays in tact. Those scenes on the river are a strange combination of funny and horrible.
Marketing people run the show. If they weren't using beard of a "remake" would they have gotten even the slightest bit of heat on this so early on? Describe the plot as it would be in standard Hollywood fair taking into account the likely sort of star needed to sell it or in need of it to boost their flagging career. Then call it either "Sympathy" or "Vengance", whatever suits. Without a big star it would go DTV, and without the remake association no cunt would even catch it on repeat cable let alone obsess over it's development history.
"I liked them better when they were on coke and throwing Natalie Wood off boats."
That is by far the best sentence Devin has ever even thought about writing. I wish you would end all of your articles with that much wit.
Scorsese.
I have to agree with BookofEliPrizes and say that "…throwing Natalie Wood off boats" was DEFINITELY one of the best lines Devin has ever written.
That last line is the single best line you have ever written. I'm adding to my wall alongside Stephen King's about crying at Titanic.
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