Fresh off the premiere of The Sympathizer, Park Chan-wook has his next TV series lined up. He is set to adapt his acclaimed 2003 revenge thriller Oldboy as an English-language TV series. Deadline reports that Park will produce the new series with frequent producing partner Syd Lim for Lionsgate.

Says Park in a statement, “Lionsgate Television shares my creative vision for bringing Oldboy into the world of television. I look forward to working with a studio whose brand stands for bold, original and risk-taking storytelling.” Lionsgate head of scripted development Scott Herbst promises that the series “will feature the raw emotional power, iconic fight scenes and visceral style that made the film a classic”. This will be the second movie-to-English-language-TV adaptation for Park; he served as a producer both on the Bong Joon-ho dystopian thriller Snowpiercer and its TV series adaptation, which will air its fourth and final season on AMC next year.

What is ‘Oldboy’?

Adapted from the manga series of the same name by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi, Oldboy centers around Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik), a man who is released from a mysterious underground cell after fifteen years of imprisonment. As he tries to understand why he was imprisoned, he seeks revenge on his captor, Lee Woo-jin (Yoo Ji-tae), while pursuing a romance with a young sushi chef, Mi-do (Kang Hye-jung). However, he eventually learns that Lee’s plot against him didn’t end when he left his cell. Park directed and co-wrote the film; it is considered to be the middle third of his thematically-linked “Vengeance Trilogy”, alongside Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. The film was acclaimed for its brutal violence, jaw-dropping action, and twisting plot, and is often cited as one of the greatest Korean films of all time. Neon re-released a restored version of the film in theaters last year for its 20th anniversary.

This will be the second English-language adaptation of Oldboy. Spike Lee remade the film in 2013, transplanting the action to the United States. Despite an all-star cast featuring James Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Sharlto Copley, Samuel L. Jackson, and Michael Imperioli, the film was unsuccessful with both critics and audiences, making $5.2 million USD on a $30 million budget and a 39% “Rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Park Chan-wook‘s TV version of Oldboy is in development; no release date has yet been set.

via Collider