Update: Deadline reports that Copley is locked into the role of Adrian Pryce, “a mysterious billionaire trying to destroy the life of Joe Douchett (Josh Brolin).”
The extended search for Spike Lee‘s Oldboy villain role may have finally come to an end, as Variety reports that District 9 and The A-Team star Sharlto Copley has been formally offered the part. This comes after Clive Owen, Colin Firth and Christian Bale have all passed, making me think the producers strongly desire someone with an accent.
Copley would be joining Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Olsen in the update form Park Chan-wook’s masterpiece. For those who haven’t seen, the film follows a younger woman (Olsen) who helps (and soon romances) a stranger (Brolin) in his quest for revenge on a mysterious, powerful figure, which Copley would play.
We know screenwriter Mark Protosevich has said he’ll be “working significant amounts of entirely new material into the mix” and “radically re-envision parts to create something new.” He event went as far to say that it may be darker than the original, so along with new characters and situations, there are still bound to be many surprises.
As for Copley, I could certainly see him playing a creepy part, even as outside-the-box the choice is. He’ll next re-team with Neill Blomkamp in Elysium and take part in the sci-fi drama Europa. Variety also lets us know he’ll pop up in Apollo 18 director Gonzalo López-Gallego‘s Open Grave, which shoots before Inertia (reported on today). The former film follows “a man wakes up in the wilderness, in a pit full of dead bodies, with no memory and must determine if the murderer is one of the strangers who rescued him, or if he himself is the killer.”
Oldboy is expected to go into production later this year for a 2013 release.
What do you think of Copley as an Oldboy villain?