Things are not exactly going smoothly for Spike Lee’s remake of OLDBOY. After getting off to an exciting start with the Lee and Josh Brolin’s inclusion, the flick has been getting the thumbs-down from a few different actors: Rooney Mara, Christian Bale and Colin Firth have all said “thanks, but no thanks” to the flick.
No problem, actors turn down roles all the time… but these rejections have been unusually public. Now, yet another name has walked in the other direction: Clive Owen, whose name popped up in conjunction with the movie last month. Variety’s reliable contributor Jeff Sneider tweeted just a few hours ago “Don’t expect CLIVE OWEN to play the villain in OLDBOY.” When asked what character Owen would play, Sneider responded “Nobody. Don’t think they could make the deal work…”
Owen collaborated with Spike Lee on INSIDE MAN, so the two obviously have a relationship, and Spike and his producers thought well enough of the man to reach out to him for this project. And though it’s certainly possible that Owen has a scheduling conflict inhibiting him from joining the movie, all of the snubs OLDBOY has been receiving lately feel a bit ominous.
The film’s start date has now been pushed back to late summer/early fall. The reason being given? Josh Brolin will be busy plugging MEN IN BLACK III. In the interim, one has to wonder if some kind of re-working of the script/project is on tap. All conjecture on my part, yes, but you’ve got to admit that something just doesn’t smell right here…
INSIDE MAN Jodie Foster
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