Thread: Oldboy remake

Clive Owen Offered Villain Role in OLDBOY & James Frain Joins THE LONE RANGER


Clive Owen Offered Villain Role in OLDBOY & James Frain Joins THE LONE RANGER

According to Twitch Film director Spike Lee is looking to re-team with actor Clive Owen, who was his lead in the underappreciated Inside Man.

According to Twitch Film Spike Lee is offering the role of the main villain in Oldboy to British actor Clive Owen. This is a role that has been a lot harder to shore up than the main lead, which Josh Brolin is locked in for. Actors Colin Firth and Christian Bale have been said to have passed on the role of the villain. Firth acknowledged that he was considering the part, but soon passed. Now Spike has his eyes set on Clive, who is someone that he has worked with before. He hired Clive Owen for the lead in Inside Man a bank robbery heist film.

Twitch has learned that the villain role has now been offered to Clive Owen. Owen and Lee have history, of course, having worked together on Lee's underrated thriller The Inside Man. That the director and star know and like each other is certainly a plus but a much bigger plus is that Owen embodies the perfect blend of sophistication and menace that the part requires along with the sort of charisma needed to go toe to toe with Brolin. Now he just needs to say yes. - Twitch Film

While in other casting news The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that True Blood star, James Frain is joining the cast of Johnny Depp's The Lone Ranger. Frain is best known for playing a vampire in the popular HBO vampire show. He tortured and raped Rutina Wesley's character Tara, and then was killed off by her.

Frain will play a tough foreman overseeing Chinese and Indian rail workers who works for the story’s chief villain (Wilkinson). - The Hollywood Reporter

Thanks to Josh Wilding for the heads up.

Mia Wasikowska Offered Female Lead In Spike Lee's OLDBOY

Mia Wasikowska Offered Female Lead In Spike Lee's OLDBOY

Casting for Spike Lee's remake of Park Chan-wook's Oldboy continues to move right along with another incredible acting talent in talks to join a growing cast.

Source: Twitch via Collider

Following the news that Clive Owen is in talks to play the lead villain in Oldboy, a role that Colin Firth passed on, we now have word that another acting talent is in talks to join the cast. Twitch reports that the key female lead has been offered to Mia Wasikowska, who has drawn rave reviews for her work in the The Kids Are All Right and Jane Eyre. Like Owen, her role was originally offered to another, in this case Rooney Mara (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo). Collider points out that if Wasikowska takes the role, it will be with a touch of irony as Wasikowska has just wrapped the horror film Stoker, the English-language directorial debut of Park Chan-wook, who directed the original 2003 South Korean version of Oldboy.

If things for both actors manage to progress beyond the widely-interpreted "talking" stage, Lee will have an impressive collection of talent including Josh Brolin, Owen, and Wasikowska.