Update: Just as we posted this story, our pals over at Pajiba have broken the news that the already-announced “Thirst” remake, the director’s award winning vampire horror film, has been acquired by Vertigo Entertainment and will be produced by Sonny Mallhi (“The Strangers,” “The Lake House”). In case no one told Mallhi, the vampire trend is pretty much out of gas, but we guess there’s no reason to try and milk some cash out of the genre while trampling on a perfectly good film in the process right?
Hollywood is ready to take another stab at bringing one of Chan-Wook Park’s “vengeance trilogy” films to American audiences (who seem to be too lazy to read subtitles).
Even though “Oldboy”‘s disturbing thematic material managed to scare away the likes of Steven Spielberg and Will Smith (thank God), Warner Brothers is ready to take a shot with the first (and weakest) film in the series, “Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance.” We first reported on this possibility way back in August, and unfortunately, the speculation has become reality. And yes, unfortunately douchebag “G.I. Joe” and “Transformers Revenge Of the Fallen” producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura is still taking the reigns on this one.
Though not nearly as heavy as “Oldboy,” the story is still pretty grim stuff as it follows a deaf-mute factory worker who desperately tries to raise money to buy a replacement kidney for his sister who needs a transplant. When he gets ripped off by organ dealers the film truly goes to some deep, dark places that we won’t spoil here, but yeah, it’s not a happy ending at all and there is a pretty decent body count.
We’re not sure why Hollywood is again going down this path. Unless they do some drastic rewrites (which isn’t out of the question) this is not mainstream stuff. It’s grim, dark, violent and tragic material that kind of knocks the wind out of you. In other words, it’s not going to be something people are going form lineups to go and see unless of course a hack like di Bonaventura santizies the shit out of it and then it’s just really not worth doing (kinda like Speilberg/Smith doing “Oldboy” — what would be the point? They could never make it as raw).
But whatever, maybe they’ll stay true to the source material and really deliver a great version of the film. And maybe Fran Drescher will win an Oscar.
