District 9’s Sharlto Copley is the latest to be offered Oldboy’s villain role

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Another name can be thrown into the OLDBOY villain grinder, as Spike Lee continues to hunt for an antagonist to spar with Josh Brolin’s titular character. Christian Bale, Colin Firth and Clive Owen were all offered the baddie role at various intervals, and all turned it down. Indeed, when Owen turned it down back in January, the shooting schedule had to be pushed back. Now everybody’s favorite extraterrestrial-relocating South African is apparently next in line.

According to Variety, Sharlto Copley (DISTRICT 9) has been offered the role of OLDBOY’s villain, a mysterious billionaire who sets out to destroy the protagonist’s life.

Copley is an interesting choice; with his turns in DISTRICT 9 and THE A-TEAM, the actor has certainly proven he can play eccentric bordering on loony – and the actor himself has already built up a reputation as displaying those traits as well. (There was chatter, perhaps unfounded, that his departure from I AM NUMBER FOUR was due to his rather strange ideas about the character he was supposed to play, which director DJ Caruso was not on board with. There were also some rumblings about him nearly being fired from THE A-TEAM.)

Naturally, we’ll have to wait and see if Copley accepts; would be lovely if this movie could finally get its shit together and begin production, that way we can all start bitching about how unnecessary it is again…

In the original OLDBOY, directed by Park Chan-Wook, Oh Dae-su is an ordinary Seoul businessman with a wife and little daughter who, after a drunken night on the town, is abducted and locked up in a strange, private prison. No one will tell him why hes there and who his jailer is and his fury builds to a single-minded focus of revenge. 15 years later, he is unexpectedly freed, given a new suit, a cell-phone and 5 days to discover the mysterious enemy who had him imprisoned. Seeking vengeance on all those involved, he soon finds that his enemys tortures are just beginning.