oldboyMichael Nyman has taken over scoring duties on Spike Lee’s upcoming English language remake of Oldboy. The film starring Josh Brolin, Samuel L. Jackson, Elizabeth Olsen and Sharlto Copley follows an advertising executive who is kidnapped and held hostage for 20 years in solitary confinement and sets out to find out who held him hostage and why when he is inexplicably released. Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend, Thor) has written the screenplay based on Chan-wook Park’s critically acclaimed Korean film from 2003 and Roy Lee & Doug Davison (The Strangers, The Lake House), as well as Nathan Kahane (Juno, 50/50) are producing the Good Universe and Vertigo Entertainment/40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks production. The project marks Nyman’s first major American feature scoring assignment in several years. The multiple Golden Globe-nominated composer has previously scored such films as The Piano, Gattaca and The End of the Affair. As previously reported, Bruce Hornsby who collaborated with Lee on his last feature Red Hook Summer was originally announced to score the project. Oldboy is set to be released nationwide on October 25, 2013 by FilmDistrict.

  1. David says:

    Strange that Spike didn’t chose Blanchard to score the film after replacing Hornsby.

    • Tor says:

      Agreed. I hope there’s no bad blood between them.

      Still, Michael Nyman on a movie like this…presuming it sticks, I can’t wait to hear it.

      • David says:

        Spike tweeted that Blanchard will be scoring one of his future films. But they don’t have any kind of problems.

        • Justin Boggan says:

          Looking at Lee’s IMDb filmography, I think it’s obvious which one — “Inside Man 2”. Blanchard scored the first one.

  2. ed says:

    Spike Lee & Michael Nyman – a collaboration i never saw coming. Now, if it was Peter Greenaway’s ‘Oldboy’…
    I always found it strange that Spike would choose Hornby to score his movies – not exactly the sound of one of his joints either. Always thought Terence Blanchard and spike fit perfectly (Budgetary reasons, i presume).
    Still, anything can happen over the course of the next couple of months; could end up being ‘MIchael Nyman feat. Public Enemy’ – now there’s a thought.

  3. Matt C. says:

    I’m so glad to see Michael Nyman on a new project! I look forward to the film and the score.

  4. Bond1965 says:

    Not anymore. Nyman’s demos were loved by Spike Lee but the producers rejected them so I guess they’ll have to push the release date back again to accommodate the scoring by someone else. Such a shame. No wonder there’s nothing original or exciting in film scoring these days.