The Point Radio: The Reasons They Remade OLD BOY

The minute cinema fans heard that the classic film, OLD BOY, was about to be remade, the controversy began. Now, two stars, two directors and one writer later, the film is headed to theaters. Writer Mark Protosevich talks about the burden of getting it right, and star Michael Imperioli explains why Spike Lee is really the only man for the the directing job. Plus comedy’s angry man, Lewis Black, reveals how he first got excited and ABC’s SHIELD tries a new direction. THE POINT covers it 24/7! Take us ANYWHERE! The Point Radio App is now in the iTunes App store – and it’s FREE! Just search under “pop culture The Point”. The Point Radio – 24 hours a day of pop culture fun for FREE. GO HERE and LISTEN FREE on any computer or on any other mobile device with the Tune In Radio app – and follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.

Transcript

The Point Radio Hey, it's Mike Raub, comedy's angry man. Lewis Black is here to tell us how all that got started. Plus, oh boy, we talked to the folks at the center of the controversy about remaking the classic.

And Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., try something new. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point, The Point Radio, get The Point Radio. The controversy began the moment the news broke that there was going to be an American remake of the classic Asian film, Old Boy.

And at the center of the conflict, writer Mark Protovich. Mark's no stranger for reworking properties to films. He's best known for I Am Legend. And I asked him what he took on this remake. Was there a lot on his shoulders?

It was a lot. I mean, the, and the, you know, when you're, you know, when you're faced with an adaptation, whether it's a book or an existing film or a, you know, graphic novel or a video game, I mean, you're, a lot of it is purely analytical, where it's like, okay, there's only so much of this material we can take or this, this might not work, this and this.

And then, but a lot of it just becomes this sort of emotional, gut, creative feeling. I mean, you're, a lot of times you're just going on instinct. And so to, you know, there's, there are definitely things in terms of the film that I wanted to follow, that we all wanted to be in there, you know, but there are variations, you know, and one of the things I'll help, you know, I've brought up the analogy before of, you

know, a lot of the things that Spike and I talked about at the very beginning where it is sort of in terms of intent of like cover versions of songs, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, I love Neil Young's Like a Hurricane, but Roxy Music does this awesome cover of it. And so it's that kind of, where you want to, you're honoring the original, but you're trying

to make it your own as much as possible. I mean, one thing that I find boring even in a cover version is if the song sounds exactly the same as the original. And so, you know, but then I've also heard covers where it's like, you barely recognize the original song.

And so it's finding that balance in between of honoring the original. And believe me, I have nothing but respect for the original. And that was one of the intents was to go in this with from a place of honor and respect, but also as a creative person, you want to make it your own. You want to bring something of yourself to it.

So how did he first get involved? I got involved with this because I got a call from Will Smith. And originally, in Will Smith, I worked with on I Am Legend and he said, I want you to write my next movie. It's a remake of Old Boy and Steven Spielberg is going to direct it.

So three, two days later, I was on a plane to LA and meeting Spielberg and that was going to be, you know, for a year. It took a while to get all the, you know, but that was going to be the package and then that completely fell apart. And but in that may have been sort of the initial interesting hook for me would be working

with them on this as opposed to saying, are you interested in writing the remake of Old Boy? But when that when that fell apart, I had become so passionate about the material and it worked out a 30 page treatment and had the movie clear in my head. And I said, the producer still wanted to go forward.

And I was like, I'm in whatever, you know, whatever, you know, because you get, you know, it it it this one really meant something to me. And you know, you can get into the whole issue of I know there are sort of fundamentalists out there who feel that the movie, the original movie should never have been remade. And I respect their feeling and there's probably nothing I could say to change that.

But you know, it is there are in in the course of film history, some fairly good pairs, you know, in terms of like English language versions of foreign films or remakes of classics. You know, I'm you know, I'm glad David Cronenberg remade The Fly. I'm you know, I'm you know, you know, that was so funny. I was actually I had mentioned, you know, there's a Japanese version of Unforgiven that's

coming out. I'm curious about that. I'm not saying, oh, they should never have, you know, how dare they remake Unforgiven. I'm curious about that. So I think it's I think there's something good about just keeping an open mind and being

open to new experience. It's interesting to note how things move from Will Smith to Spike Lee. Well, the interesting thing about that whole I mean, I had like three meetings with Steven and one at one of the first meetings, he said, my son will kill me if we don't make this movie as as intense as the original.

So in his mind, we were going to go there. Now, I don't think he ever had that conversation with Will. So who knows what might have happened. But even in those early stages, there was encouragement to go for it. Because I think one of the other assumptions is that we were going to somehow wimp out

and sort of, you know, make it a little more palatable for a mass audience. And I can assure you, we did not. I still hope it gets some. I still hope it has an audience. And they enjoy that.

But the intention from the very beginning and then and then when it was then it became then it was just the producers and I sitting in a room going, let's let's go forward. Let's get a draft of the script that we're all happy with and then get an actor and a director and try to try to put this together. So that that became that became the process at that time.

And we were all we were all invested in. You know, it was a lower budget movie at that point. You know, we were you know, it was it was not going to be a big you know, it was a fairly modest production, even even then. And so we said, well, you know, let's I think we all were let's just dump and jump into

the pool. Where does the actors go? Did they study the first film? I asked Michael Imperio. No, I never do that kind of thing.

I always just I always feel like it's better to start from scratch. I'd rather go into it. I'd rather go into it. No preconception. And what was it like working with Spike Lee?

It was good to just delve into the script and particularly dialogue. And this was the sixth film I did with Spike Lee. So I'm kind of used to it as well. I'm kind of used to it as well. I'm kind of used to it as well.

I'm kind of used to it as well. I'm kind of used to it as well. I'm kind of used to it as well. I'm kind of used to it as well. I'm kind of used to it as well.

And it's really kind of seeing how the words come out of your mouth. Spike really encourages a lot of input. Which a lot of people are surprised when they hear that because they think of Spike as someone who runs a great tech ship, which he does. But he really, you can be as creative as you want.

He encourages it. Old Boy starring Josh Brolin and directed by Spike Lee in theaters right now. Here it is, the latest in pop culture. As Marvel's agents of SHIELD struggles to find their ratings footing, they're now going to go to some serialized storytelling beginning with two-part episodes that'll start on December

10th with an episode called The Bridge that also brings back a number of characters from earlier in the season, including J. August Richards. Despite the fact that ABC has renewed the show for the rest of the season, there have been some ongoing ratings challenges and recent episodes have posted numbers that have been the lowest so far of the season.

The Ed Brubaker Sean Phillips property sleeper from DC is now headed to a new medium. The Vertigo series will be produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon and Warner Brothers has also brought on an interesting set of writers for the project that include Sean Ryan and David Weiner. Boom Studios has now announced a new imprint.

It'll be the fourth, by the way, for them, and it's called Boom Box. It'll be edited by Shannon Waters, who also edits Adventure Time, regular show and Bravest Warriors for Boom's Kaboom line of comics. The plan here is to bring in creators from outside the traditional comic market, including web cartoonists, illustrators, and fine artists as well.

The imprint will debut with books and stores in December. Another blow on this would could be fatal in the court case involving the heirs to the creators of Superman. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled two to one in favor of Warner Brothers, and this, as we said, could be pretty much the last chance for those heirs of Jerry Siegel and

Joe Shuster to stake their claim. There could be a reconsideration by the appeals court or the Supreme Court, but a lot of experts feel that those moves could be a long shot. Fox has made some moves for its new schedule after the first of the year, particularly in their troubled Tuesday night comedy block.

Glee will be coming back to Tuesdays, then starting at eight o'clock, and after that will be episodes of New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The Mindy Project goes on hiatus after their winter finale in January, and dads will end their run early in February on the network. Meanwhile, the following is back with a two-night event on Fox that begins Sunday, January 19th,

following the NFC Championship Game. Michael Chiglis is going to stay with the genre and possibly bring his Path-a-non series from IDW to the small screen. The series was published back in 2010 and it followed ancient Greek gods who were resurrected in a near-future Earth, and of course complete chaos ensues after that.

Along with Michael, the newly formed IDW Entertainment, the TV division, the publishing company, is also involved in developing the project. And with everything else headed to theaters in 2015, it looks like we'll finally get that new Mad Max movie. Mad Max Fury Road is headed to theaters on the 15th of May in that year, along with actress

Charlize Theron, the film also stars Tom Hardy, who you know as Bane from Dark Knight Rises. The Point Radio. I think I'd like to mention that angry guy. I kind of think of him as the guy who says all the stuff I wish I could say. These comedian Lewis Black who actually started out headed into a career in math.

Well I had this really good aptitude for math but I didn't really know what, nobody ever taught me what math was good for. You know, they could do all this stuff but I didn't know what, no idea what it applied to. And what I got really, I went to the theater, the first time I went into a theater I went

wow this is really amazing and I got fascinated by it and then I kind of ended up going to the theater and I got pursuing it and that led from theater and then I spent time up in New Haven studying it and then I went on to do stand up. Yep, he was a playwright. Yeah I wrote plays just in order to see how little money a human being could make in the

course of a year. How'd that work out for you? It worked out really well, even now that I've had some plays done, I had a play that's been done four times in the last year and you know you're still going to make what you made then which was nothing.

It's unbelievable. I don't know how to be, I mean I really was, I don't know what I was thinking but I was marching along like I was going to be doing fine. From here both the stage and the opportunity were waiting for Lewis. I mean I started doing more stuff on stage and I started acting and I started, I was

always fooling around with stand up. I just did it for fun because it was a way to get writing up and out so I could write something and do it and then eventually you know I kind of figured it out. As Lewis worked his way up the stand up comedy ladder, how did he manage to get his act the way it is now?

Well it started out as I talked about sex because I had a funny sex life and then I was born and raised around DC and I started talking more and more about what was happening there and then just stuff that I started seeing when I was traveling and stuff that I finally got. I've been living in New York City for about 10 years and then I started going on the road

as a comic and then that was really when the transition took place. I just started seeing stuff that was beyond, you know I said I could see a Starbucks across from a Starbucks in Houston. I go what is that about? You know you just start to see crazier.

The more you travel the crazier the stuff is you get to see. So is it true that anytime anywhere something happens could end up in his act? Well no it's like anything that I see that makes me go that's crazy or makes me angry and then once I see it I start thinking about it and then I start to throw it up on stage and if it seems to have you know it makes sense to talk about and the audience relates

to it I keep it and if not I just drop it and move on to whatever. The next stupidity. In addition to stand up Lewis is also an author as well with a few books already out there and more on the way. I'm working on a book about the time I was in New York when I got in here in about 1980

and so I'm writing about that and then I'm also doing a Pixar animation where I play Oddly Enough Hangar. I've got a regular TV series. I tried for 15 years and basically they rejected like two things a year so I've kind of given out.

I would like to. I'd like to be involved in something that we're a bunch of fun people to work with and we can go out there and do something but I don't think it's going to happen. Some of the very best of Lewis Black available right now on DVD including Lewis' Root of All Evil or his book A Black Christmas both available along with a lot more cool stuff.

Right now on Amazon.com and don't forget Lewis begins a nationwide tour in January. For cities and dates go to LewisBlack.com. That does it for the podcast right now and here's our plan for the future. Well next week of course Thanksgiving holiday. We're here one time during the week and we're going to make the most of it by looking at

the new TNT series Mob City headed up by Frank Darabont and starring some pretty interesting folks as well. In the meantime keep up on pop culture throughout any season right now at GetThePointRadio.com. Listen on your laptop or on your desktop computer or take us anywhere on any mobile device Android or Apple with a free app called iNet Radio.

Get it in the app store or check it out at iNetRadio.com. This podcast heard twice every week and it shows up on websites like ComicMix.com, Michael Davis World.com and on the iTunes podcast directory as well and you can follow us on social media. We're under the point radio on Facebook and on Twitter.

Have a great weekend. See you in a few days.