News has been slow coming for the reboot of the Park Chan-wook film Oldboy which is based on the manga of the same name. Casting news has changed drastically over the last few months for the Spike Lee directed reboot. Colin Firth was originally offered the role of the villain, however he has decided against it and now Sharlto Copley has been offered the part.

Copely, most known for staring in the film District 9, will appear opposite Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Olsen as the main characters.

The reboot will follow Joe (named Dae-su Oh in the original) who will be played by Brolin as he is captured and imprisoned in a hotel room for over two decades (it was 15 years in the original). But Joe has no understanding why he has been imprisoned. When he is suddenly released, he is told he has just four days to determine the reason for his detainment.

Originally a late ’90’s manga series by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi, the American version will apparently, as in that series, go by that two word title rather that the single world Oldboy that Chan-wook’s version used.

I have seen the original film (but have not read the manga) and there are some pretty heavy themes from live and love, to the psychology of being imprisoned, incest, family ties, and not to mention the brutality. I am not to sure American audiences are totally ready for what the film entails, and I am curious to see what they keep and what they change slightly to make more appropriate for the less open-minded audiences.

Oh yeah, and the scene where he eats a live octopus alive… will probably make you sick. This probably won’t be included in the American reboot as eating live octopus is not a delicacy here as it is in Korea.