Colin Firth Offered Villain Role in Spike Lee’s OLDBOY

By Nick Martin | Nov 12, 2011 | Movie News (0) Comment

Oscar-winner Colin Firth has been offered the villainous role of a wealthy businessman who has a strange history with the lead character in the Spike Lee remake of Oldboy, one of the greatest crime thriller that won the Grand Prize Jury Award at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

Both Christian Bale and Rooney Mara have been the likely candidate of the psycho-thriller adaptation, but have since gone off to star in new untitled Terrence Malick project.

Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men) is still the only actor locked in to star in the American redux of the Korean modern classic. Mark Protosevich who contributed to Thor, I Am Legend wrote a script.

The original Oldboy manga by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi, previously adapted into a lauded film by Park Chan-wook, tells the story of a man hunting for the reason that someone kidnapped and imprisoned him on his daughter’s birthday in a private prison for fifteen years. He soon finds out that his kidnapper has even more tortuous plans for him.

The villain named Woo-jin Lee and played by Ji-tae Yu in a tremendous 2003 South Korean original, goes by the name of Adrian.

Mandate Pictures wants to have Oldboy in theaters at some point next year.

Firth won a Best Actor Oscar last year for his play as King George VI in The King’s Speech and he was nominated the year before for his work in A Single Man. Therefore, he usually portrays nice guys, and his natural affability could make Adrian a highly complex, conflicted person. Particularly with Josh Brolin confirmed to headline Spike Lee’s remake, Pride and Prejudice (1995) star could most certainly provide that depth.

Firth appeared in the 2011 adaptation of the John le Carré Cold War novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and began filming the remake of 1966 crime caper Gambit.