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Park Chan-wook Fans -- Get Out the Murdertank

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (22)

thirst-movie-pos.jpg

You like Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy but bothered by all those annoying subtitles? You find stunning visuals annoying? Don’t really care for simple, but visceral violence? Not really into moral gray areas?

You’re in luck! Although Park Chan-wook’s American remake of Oldboy with Spielberg and Will Smith is all but dead, fear not! Warner Brothers has purchased the remake rights to Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, the first in the Vengeance Trilogy, according to Screen Daily. Fantastic, right? We all love crass American remakes! Hoo-wa! Semper-Fi!

And just to show you how much respect that Warners has for Park Chan-wook, they’ve hired Brian Tucker to pen the script. Never heard of him? Don’t worry about it. Trust Warner Brothers. They know what they’re doing! Who needs a veteran talent to adapt a legendary film? Not when there’s a perfectly good nobody walking the streets. Better yet, he’s cheap, so they can save all there money for EXPLOSIONS!

Amen. Hoo-ra! American Flag! Little Pink House for You and Me, motherfuckers.

Hey! At least they got Mabrouk El Mechri (JCVD) to exec produce.

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance follows the character Ryu’s efforts to earn enough money for his sister’s kidney transplant and the path of vengeance that follows. And who needs Shin Ha-kyun when maybe you can get Nic Cage? Or Taylor Lautner? Thanks, America!

Oh, but there’s more. I checked with the Hollywood Cog after learning that Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance was being remade, and guess what?! So is Park Chan-wook’s Thirst, which just came out last year (it was on Prisco’s list of the Top Ten Indies of 2009). Brian called it ” incredibly complex and stirring.” Hey! That’s just the sort of thing that Hollywood loves to remake, cause they’re so well known for “complex and stirring” works. Yay, Team. (That said, Prisco said a remake might work if they set it in Boston during the winter.)

Vertigo Entertainment is developing that remake, and Sonny Mallhi (The Strangers, The Lake House) is set to produce, and who wouldn’t want a guy who produced a movie about a time-traveling mailbox producing a soon-to-be classic Korean film for American audiences, who love subtlety. Hey! Let’s Twilight this motherfucker! Stuff those vampires in a mailbox!

The Thirst remake is still in the very early stages of development; it’s currently out to writer and director possibilities.










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Comments

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.

Posted by: jamiepants at January 7, 2010 9:53 AM

I was modestly upset by the previous plan to remake Oldboy, but I am downright DISMAYED that they want to remake Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. I absolutely adore that film, warts (i.e. truly disturbing imagery) and all. I cannot imagine them retaining the moral complexity of that film, and I shudder to think what change they'll make to the ending. Ugh. Hopefully this'll go the way of the Oldboy remake.

Can't comment on Thirst; haven't seen it yet.

Posted by: vic at January 7, 2010 9:59 AM

I'm numb. This no longer affects me. Ever since the day I heard that Steven Spielberg was attached to remake Ikiru with Tom Hanks in the starring role, something inside of me snapped. Nothing ever came of the production, I don't think. But the psychological scar remains.

Posted by: TSF at January 7, 2010 10:01 AM

I could be wrong, but wasn't The Lake House a remake of Korean movie?

Posted by: opiejuankenopie at January 7, 2010 10:06 AM

Thirst was perfect. Maybe a remake will bring more light to the original?

Posted by: ThunderSacTriumph at January 7, 2010 10:09 AM

I would just be happy if Thirst came out on Blu Ray. What's up with that, anyway.

Snore. Another day, another chance for Hollywood to continue the slide to total irrelevancy. Thank God for foreign filmmakers.

Anyone see the news that Warners is going to start delaying new releases by a month on Netflix? Fun stuff there.

http://www.mediacomtoday.com/news/read.php?id=17691361&ps=1015&srce=news_class&action=4&lang=en&_LT=UNLC_NKNWU00L4_UNEWS

Posted by: TylerDFC at January 7, 2010 10:18 AM

ThunderSacTriumph, there are still many young people unaware that the Aughts versions of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, and Friday the 13th weren't original films. There are people who don't know The Ring is a remake of a Japanese film, and a smaller group of people who think Ringu was a Japanese rip-off. I doubt a Thirst remake will bring attention to the original.

Posted by: Robert at January 7, 2010 10:21 AM

Methinks it's time that Pajiba makes its own Vengeance Trilogy.

Disdain For Mr Warner

Choadboy

Lady Vehemence

Posted by: admin at January 7, 2010 10:22 AM

ThunderSacTriumph, there are still many young people unaware that the Aughts versions of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, and Friday the 13th weren't original films.

Yes, we call them morons.

Posted by: TylerDFC at January 7, 2010 10:35 AM

Anyone up for finding the executives responsible for greenlighting these remakes, dragging them out to the middle of a lake, and slashing their achilles tendons and leaving them to bleed out?

Posted by: Dill The Devil at January 7, 2010 10:38 AM

I'll write it. I took a film writing course in college. And I'll do it for a -very- reasonable price. I even have a fresh new angle on it! Ryu quests for revenge with a canine pal!

Seriously though, chew on this: They have been talking about doing a Battle Royale remake for at least 5 years; disturbing imagery or no, how do you think American studios would deal with the visceral deaths of multiple teenagers? The same way they deal with any teenagers on TV or in movies: cast 30-somethings.

Posted by: Kat at January 7, 2010 10:45 AM

TylerDFC, I was JUST going to comment that my boss showed me that item this morning about the delay. The item she showed me said that naturally, other distributors will follow suit later in the year.

It doesn't affect me so much; honestly, I don't need to see stuff the minute it comes out (mostly). If I did, I'd have caught it in the theater. Still, most people (my boss's husband included) want to see them right away. It's a shitty move on Warner's part.

Posted by: Anna von Beaverpuppet at January 7, 2010 11:06 AM

After reading that Netflix delay article, I see that the first two movies Warner Bros plans to do this with are The Invention of Lying and Whiteout. Boy, if there were ever a couple of movies that most people will completely forget about if they have to wait to see them...

And from the article: Nearly three-fourths of DVD sales are made during the first four weeks the discs are in the stores, so turning off Netflix's rental channel during that stretch might spur more impulse buying among consumers who can't wait to see a newly released DVD.

Yes, I'm sure people are SOOOO excited about The Invention of Lying and Whiteout that they're going to RUN, not walk, to buy them in stores if they're denied the ability to rent them RIGHT NOW.

Sorry for the rant, I just think that's a monumentally stupid idea.

Posted by: MM at January 7, 2010 12:07 PM

MM: That was my reaction too. A very strange couple of movies to highlight as spurring on sales when most people don't remember they existed.

I'm actually glass half full on this. I love the Netflix streaming so if this gets more quality on-demand movies than I can live with it. But I haev a feeling if they pull this with something like, oh, The Hurt Locker, they would be really heloping Blockbuster regain a foothold.

Who buys movies at full price having never seen the movie before? I have a shit ton of flicks and I can count on one hand the times I have done that, and I regretted it every time. "8 Mile" and "King Kong", for those curious. I watched them exactly once.

Posted by: TylerDFC at January 7, 2010 12:41 PM

I hope they are giving Park a big chunk of change to make these movies so he can make what he wants. I hope.

Posted by: Sad Rockstar at January 7, 2010 12:46 PM

I buy DVDs without seeing the movie first all the time. If you buy it the first week it comes out, you can usually get it for about $16-17. That's cheaper than buying a movie ticket, some popcorn and a soda. Of course, I only buy movies that I really want to see and have received fairly good reviews (esp. on this site). But, even if it turns out not to be that great, I still saved over going to the theater.

Posted by: Peanut_Butter_And_James at January 7, 2010 12:58 PM

Just remember they're remaking these movies, not destroying the original versions.

The original versions of Oldboy, Sympathy, and Thirst are still there to be enjoyed.

Posted by: John W at January 7, 2010 1:46 PM

But these will get the first impression for most of the American movie-going public who don't care if its desecration as long as they've got a white face and the Amurkin language attached to it.

There's no opportunity for the American public to grow through cinema these days, and less so when they take intellectual property like these classics and castrate them to cater to the whitebread tastes of the American stereotype.

Posted by: Kat at January 7, 2010 3:03 PM

I could be wrong, but wasn't The Lake House a remake of Korean movie?
Posted by: opiejuankenopie at January 7, 2010 10:06 AM
--------------------

Shhhh, opiejuankenopie, Korea doesn't want anyone to know!!!

How embarrassing.

Posted by: Jelinas at January 7, 2010 4:18 PM

I've run out of ways to be horrified by the new lows Hollywood sinks to, especially concerning defiling other countries' movies rather than just releasing them here. I'll just give a pissy thumbs down and leave it at that.

As for Netflix delays... well, I don't like the idea of it on principle, but I have like, a 410 movie queue. I will totally live if I don't get to see movie 411 RIGHT NOW.

Posted by: Nat Kittyface at January 7, 2010 5:05 PM

Yep. The Lake House was once 시월애 (Il Mare). But no need to shit all over it. It was actually really good. All moodiness, architecture, and Jeon Ji-hyun emoting the hell all over the screen.

Posted by: Scott at January 7, 2010 5:51 PM

I feel like taking vengeance all right!
And they wonder why the world hates us.

Posted by: Arthur Dent at January 9, 2010 4:35 PM