With the middle installment of Korean director Chan-Park Wook’s thematic “Vengeance Trilogy”, Oldboy, seeming to get all the attention, I find that the first film of the three, Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, to be an under-rated classic in its own right. And now, it has become the latest film from the director to be targeted for an American remake.
Warner Brothers has picked up the rights to remake the film and have hired Brian Tucker to pen an English language version of the film, according to Screen Daily.
I first saw Sympathy For Mr Vengeance at a film festival in 2003 when it was making the US film festival rounds and was impressed with its powerful story of two men locked into a cycle of murderous revenge. Oldboy and the Vengeance Trilogy’s third installment, Sympathy For Lady Vengeance may be stronger films visually, butI think this version remains the strongest of the three thematically.
Previously, both Oldboy and Sympathy For Lady Vengeance have been optioned by Hollywood for remakes and both projects have failed to materialize. Steven Spielberg and Will Smith vision for Oldboy was derailed by rights issues involving the original magna the film was based on. Back in the spring of 2008, Charlize Theron announced that she had optioned Sympathy For Lady Vengeance for a remake in which she was going to produce and star. However, since then there has been no word on the project, so it has probably died a quiet death.
