Lionsgate Television announced on Wednesday that the studio is set to produce an English-language television adaptation of Park-chan Wook’s 2003 thriller Oldboy. The movie, one of the most mesmerizing, memorable dark action movies of the 2000s, started a new wave of Korean action cinema when it was first released. It’s since spawned endless copycats and homages — particularly its grim, bloody single-take hammer-in-a-hallway fight sequence, which filmmakers still frequently cite as an inspiration for their own battle scenes in constricted spaces. A 4K restoration was released in American theaters in 2023, and came in second at the box office in its first week, beaten only by Barbie. Spike Lee remade the movie as an English-language thriller in 2013, but it’s never been adapted for television before.
Oldboy’s story follows a drunken Korean salaryman, Dae-su Oh (Choi Min-sik) who wakes up after a bender to find he’s been imprisoned in a run-down room in a dilapidated hotel. His captors don’t speak to him — his only interaction with them comes in the form of food trays, and occasional haircuts and other physical maintenance after he’s been drugged. They hold him for 15 years, as his mind disintegrates and he hones his body for war. Then they abruptly release him onto a rooftop, with no explanation. The rest of the film is a combination mystery and revenge thriller, as he tries to find out why this happened to him, and punish his captors.
The film is loosely based on an eight-volume manga series by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi. The original Japanese story goes into considerably more depth with the characters, has a more conventional gangster-underground flavor, and takes the plot in a different direction. Lionsgate’s announcement doesn’t specify whether the new show will draw on the parts of the manga that Park didn’t use, and no showrunner or cast has been announced yet. Park Chan-wook and his producing partner Syd Lim will produce the series.
Park spent decades in movies, directing films like his signature Vengeance Trilogy (Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance), the lush book adaptation The Handmaiden, the dark, funny vampire tragedy Thirst, and 2022’s terrific Decision to Leave. Since 2018, he’s been expanding into television, producing the series version of Snowpiercer and directing and producing two spy thrillers adapting celebrated novels: the 2018 AMC miniseries The Little Drummer Girl, and the new HBO thriller The Sympathizer, starring Robert Downey Jr.
Lionsgate didn’t provide many details about the planned Oldboy TV adaptation — a showrunner and cast have not yet been announced, and the initial press release didn’t address possible directions or storylines. A release date has not been set.
