You're gonna be bothered by how cool I am.

Say it ain't so.

I know that you two exceedingly important gentlemen have much better things to do than read my Live Journal, but in case there's some bizarre turn of events that causes you to end up here, I implore you...

Please step away from the Oldboy remake. Remakes can occasionally be done well, and in rare instances can be better than the original. I'm sure at this point, Steven, you're thinking of your old friend Scorsese and his masterful retelling of Infernal Affairs, which finally won him his long LONG overdue Oscar. If this is the kind of thing you are going for, then maybe I can play along, but only if someone really ass-kickingly awesome pens the script, like Paul Schrader or ... it might even be an interesting project for Tracy Letts. But only if someone of that calibre - someone who can handle sick, dark, soul-destroying material should be allowed anywhere near this story.

Mr. Spielberg, I respect you as a filmmaker. You've had some misses, but your hits have been pretty spectacular, and you can be dark when you want to be. I'm just not sure you can be this particular kind of dark. I won't spoil the ending for anyone else reading this who's not familiar, but I hope I don't have to remind you that the big moment at the end, the reveal that rips the floor from under the audience's feet, is so devastating that the lead character CUTS OUT HIS OWN TONGUE with a pair of SCISSORS in response to it. Can you really see Will Smith going that dark? Because I can't, for the life of me.

And you, Mr. Smith ... I know you've got one pretty serious controversial role on your resume. Six Degrees of Separation is indeed a jewel in your critical crown. But Dae Soo is, forgive me, out of your realm. This is not a 4th of July weekend movie, and it is DEFINITELY not the kind of movie you can take your children to see. Please take that into consideration before you jump into this darkness.

Sincerely,
Me (who incidentally, would love to try her hand at a script of this movie)


This was one of the "new" films at BNAT in 2003. We got to see it even before it screened for Harvey Weinstein at what was then Miramax. This is a stellar, but BRUTAL film about revenge, and to hear that Spielberg and Smith are interested in it is like hearing that Disney is going to remake ... I dunno, Deliverance or Re-Animator or summat. Just. Does not. Compute.