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