While Spike Lee didn’t change anybody’s worlds with last year’s Red Hook Summer, he has had a lot of people talking about his upcoming Oldboy remake, based on the Korean original. No one really seems to want it, but it is definitely set for an October 11 release. What’s he going to follow that with, a Gone With the Wind remake?
No, thank goodness. According to The Wrap, he’s attached to direct Gold for Black Bear Pictures, with Paul Haggis (Crash) on board as a producer. Based on a true story, it centers on the 1993 scandal involving the false claims by the Bre-X Mineral Corporation that they have discovered a large deposit of gold in the jungles of Indonesia. The screenplay was written by Patrick Massett and Jon Zinman the screenwriting duo responsible for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and several episodes of Friday Night Lights and most recently Last Resort. The last we heard about Gold, Michael Mann was circling it, but he has since moved on to be attached to a bunch of other movies.
The last really solid work Lee has done involved Hurricane Katrina and its effects on New Orleans, though nobody is denying the power of the Michael Jackson doc Bad 25. But anyway, I’ll be a lot more excited about this flick if Oldboy defies all expectations, even though the films couldn’t be any more different.
Production is set to start before the year is over with, but the casting choices may ripple the scheduling waters. Let’s hope Lee’s presence is more real gold than not.
