Following his first foray into television with 2018’s “The Little Drummer Girl,” Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook returns to Western television this month with the espionage thriller series “The Sympathizer” on HBO (read our review). And the director is already quickly putting together another project for the small screen, a series adaptation of his 2003 revenge masterpiece “Oldboy.” Variety reports that Chan-Wook is partnering with Lionsgate Television on the adaptation of the English-language series based on his film of the same name.
READ MORE: ‘The Sympathizer’ Review: Park Chan-Wook, Robert Downey Jr. Are in Inspired Pairing for HBO’s Ambitious Adaptation
Released in 2003, “Oldboy” starred Choi Min-Sik and was the filmmaker’s breakthrough film on the international stage. The genre-heavy, violent film centers on a man who, following a kidnapping and imprisonment for fifteen years, is released, only to discover that he only has five days to track down his captors. Considered a classic of the genre, “Oldboy” became something of a gateway drug for North American audiences and helped usher in a South Korean new wave of kinetic and eclectic genre-focused filmmaking (you can read about 10 South Korean New Wave Essential movies here).
“Lionsgate Television shares my creative vision for bringing ‘Oldboy’ into the world of television,” said the filmmaker in an official statement. “I look forward to working with a studio whose brand stands for bold, original, and risk-taking storytelling.” As mentioned in the report, Chan-wook will produce the series based on his feature film, loosely an adaptation of a Japanese manga from Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi.
No directors or writers are currently attached, but fans would love to see Chan-Wook take a crack at directing an episode or two.
“Oldboy” was remade into an American film in 2013 by Spike Lee with Josh Brolin in the lead role, but the film was met with poor reviews and is largely regarded as one of Lee’s rare misfires. Chan-Wook himself was more charitable with his assessment and called watching the remake a “surreal” experience.
Many who might not have seen the movie are likely still aware of the famously unrelenting one-shot hallway fight scene where the protagonist fights off a horde of henchmen with a hammer. That visually spectacular scene has influenced countless projects from the West, including multiple installments of the “John Wick” franchise; Lionsgate just happens to be the studio behind that one, too.
On the feature film front, the director is casting his remake of the dark comedy “The Ax” alongside other plans to tackle the Western genre and make a feature adaptation of the military sci-fi Japanese novel/anime “Genocdial Organ.” “The Sympathizer” is available to stream on MAX, and you can read The Playlist’s review right here.