Thursday, November 20, 2008

Universal and Gore Verbinski Redo The Host


Universal Pictures and Gore Verbinski will remake the 2006 Bong Joon-ho directed Korean thriller "The Host," with commercials director Fredrik Bond making his feature helming debut and Mark Poirier ("Smart People") to pen the script.

Story follows a town terrorized by a giant mutant squid like creature hatched by toxins that flow into a nearby river from a military base. When the creature grabs a little girl, her dysfunctional family must band together to rescue her.

Bong Joon-ho who directed the Korean version had this to say about the remake.

"Maybe three or four years down the line, if The Host [remake] comes out, and there's a cool director who takes it on and makes it a real great film, then I'd be very happy," Bong said in an interview, through a translator. "On the other hand, if it's just crap, I think I'd be happy, too, because then people would be like, 'Oh, yeah, Bong's original was really good.' So, for me, it's a win-win situation. But Universal has a tradition of doing horror and creature films, so I anticipate that they will do a great film."

Verbinski will produce with Vertigo's Roy Lee and Doug Davison, along with Paul Brooks. Bond has directed campaigns for Nike, Adidas and Levi's. He and Verbinski had been looking for a project to do together, and Bond said he embraced the opportunity to mix a larger-than-life monster with a heartfelt family drama.

Verbinski set up the project through Blind Wink Prods., the company he formed at Universal, where he is developing to direct an adaptation of the videogame "Bioshock."

Thoughts:
Seeing as how I haven't seen the original, I don't know what to think of this. I probably should see the original since its been getting some big praise by fans of the movie. Ill probably end up watching the remake to see how the movie turns out, but Hollywood is seriously running out of ideas.

3 comments:

Jacstev said...

I love the original version very much. It's not only an ordinary monster flick, but it's also a touching family drama. I hope that they're will not going to make another bad remake that ruins it masterpiece original.

Cruiz said...

Please don't do this!!!!

The biggest problem with remakes of asian films, even horror, is that they tend to forget that the original films are quite storey orientated... even Juo-n and ringu played out like dramas but with awesome horror elements.

As for The Host, its absolutely brilliant... there is so much depth to the story told, socially, politically etc. It's a one of a kind monster movie... i doubt a remake, no matter how good, can have the same impact.

and btw, i love the ju-on remakes, just that the host does't seem like a film that can be remade.

Anonymous said...

I think the original The Host is a great movie that reveals the Korean society's issues. The monster is the glue that holds the story together.

If they ever going to make the American version to work, they have to try and deal with the American society issues as well.