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Variety Writer: Actress Rooney Mara Passes on Oldboy Remake
posted on by Egan Loo
Justin Knoll, a writer for the entertainment trade magazine Variety, reported on his Twitter account on Wednesday that Spike Lee's remake of Park Chan-Wook's live-action film Oldboy is still filling its female led role since Rooney Mara (The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remake) passed on it. The film website Twitch had reported last month that the actress was being considered for the renamed character Marie by the film's staff, but had not yet been given a formal offer.
Director Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X) signed onto Mandate Pictures' American remake of Oldboy in July, and Josh Brolin is slated to play the male lead. Park's film was itself inspired by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi's manga Old Boy.
Mandate Pictures is developing the project with producers Doug Davison and Roy Lee (The Ring, Dark Water [2005], Death Note and Godzilla remake plans) of Vertigo Entertainment and Lee's 40 Acres & A Mule Productions. Mark Protosevich (Thor, I Am Legend) wrote a script, and Mandate Pictures President Nathan Kahane is serving as executive producer.
The trade magazine Variety earlier described the Korean film's story about "a man who's kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years. When he's finally released and begins looking into the reason for his captivity, he soon finds out that his kidnapper has even more torturous plans for him." (The original manga has the protagonist imprisoned for a different number of years and does not have the Korean film's added plot twist ending.)
Dark Horse Comics publishes the manga in North America.
[Via Cinema Blend]
