The release of Spike Lee’s Oldboy remake is fast approaching, and that means the publicity campaign is ramping up. Today sees the release of a video featurette about Josh Brolin’s physical transformation into the movie’s tortured protagonist.
It’s not unusual for actors to undergo physical transformations for movie roles. Robert De Niro beefed up for Raging Bull, Christian Bale famously went skeletal for The Machinist and then put on major muscle mass for Batman Begins, and Lindsay Lohan put on roughly 20 lbs. of scabies for her role in The Canyons. It always makes for a good story when selling the movie and a nice bullet point for the actor’s resume.
This featurette is all about playing up not only Brolin’s physical sacrifices for the role, but also all the other ways in which he totally nails it. It may seem like hyperbole to someone who has not seen him act in other films, but his past work speaks for itself. From The Goonies to No Country for Old Men to W., Brolin has shown a wide range as an actor. Now he gets to play a character who has undergone 20 years of isolation and torture and is out to beat a bunch of people up with swords, hammers, baseball bats etc. Sounds like a good time.
Oldboy is a remake of a 2003 South Korean film directed by Park Chan-wook, which was in turn loosely based on a Japanese manga of the same name. For fans of the original movie the idea of remaking it may seem as sacrilegious as remaking The Godfather or Citizen Kane. Spike Lee is certainly no slouch as a director, though, and it will be interesting to see what he brings to the table, even if it’s hard to imagine his version surpassing the original.
Oldboy is slated for release in the U.S. on November 27th, check out the featurette below and let us know what you think.