Lionsgate Television announced Wednesday that the studio will produce an English-language television adaptation of Park-chan Wook’s 2003 thriller. Old boy. The film, one of the most enchanting, memorable dark action films of the 2000s, started a new wave of Korean action cinema when it was first released. Since then, it has spawned endless copycats and homages – especially the grim, bloody one-take hammer-in-a-gang fight sequence that filmmakers still frequently use mention as a source of inspiration for their own battle scenes in tight spaces. A 4K restoration was released in US theaters in 2023 and placed second at the box office in its first week. just beaten by Barbie. Spike Lee remade the film as an English-language thriller in 2013, but it has never before been adapted for television.
Old boyThe story of Dae-su Oh (Choi Min-sik) follows a drunken Korean salaryman, who wakes up after a bender to find himself trapped in a run-down room in a run-down hotel. His captors don’t talk to him; his only interaction with them comes in the form of trays of food, and the occasional haircut and other physical maintenance after he is drugged. They keep him captive for fifteen years while his mind disintegrates and he hones his body for war. Then they abruptly release him onto a roof, without explanation. The rest of the film is a combination mystery and revenge thriller, as he tries to find out why this happened to him and punish his captors.
The film is loosely based on an eight-part manga series by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi. The original Japanese story delves considerably deeper into the characters, has a more conventional gangster-underground flavor, and takes the plot in a different direction. Lionsgate’s announcement does not specify whether the new show will use the parts of the manga that Park did not use, and no showrunner or cast has been announced yet. Park Chan-wook and his production partner Syd Lim will produce the series.
Park spent decades in films, directing films like his landmark Vengeance Trilogy (Old boy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance And Sympathy for Lady Vengeance), the lavish book adaptation The Handmaidthe dark, funny vampire tragedy Thirstand 2022 is great Decide to leave. Since 2018, he has expanded into television and produces the series version of Snowpiercer and directing and producing two spy thrillers adapting famous novels: the 2018 AMC miniseries The little drummer girland the new HBO thriller The sympathizerstarring Robert Downey Jr.
Lionsgate did not provide many details about the plans Old boy TV adaptation – a showrunner and cast have not yet been announced, and the initial press release did not elaborate on possible directions or storylines. No release date has been set.