Deadline is reporting that director Allen Hughes will direct a remake of the 2005 Korean crime film A Bittersweet Life. Already on the fast track over at Fox and New Regency, Anthony Peckham is being called in to do some work on the script.
For those unfamiliar with the film, it tells the following story:
A Bittersweet Life follows an enforcer and manager of a hotel owned by a crime boss. The enforcer is charged with escorting the boss’s young mistress, who might be having an affair. While he’s told to kill both if in fact she is cheating, the enforcer instead beats up her lover while she watches, and makes them promise never to see each other again.
The enforcer is by now smitten with the mistress, and it begins to color a series of dangerous moves he makes that put him at odds both with his boss and the boss’s crime rival. The tale becomes an exercise in vengeance as the enforcer goes up against his longtime boss.
Hughes is coming off the Mark Wahlberg/Russell Crowe-starring Broken City, which is also housed at Fox and New Regency. Early buzz on that film is positive and I was impressed with the director’s work on on both The Book of Eli and From Hell, so I’m definitely interested in his upcoming remake.
Plus, the original A Bittersweet Life is a great crime thriller that I thoroughly enjoyed. I’m not 100% sure why it’s being remade but still, I’m willing to give this one a shot.