Just days after the internets were excitedly reporting Christian Bale was a lock for the lead, comes the announcement that Josh Brolin (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN) will instead be wielding the hammer in Spike Lee’s OLDBOY.

Brolin’s name has been kicking around since the remake of Park Chan-Wook’s acclaimed revenge thriller was greenlit, but once Bale showed interest a lot of folk (including myself) thought he was an inspired choice to take over the role. It is now thought that Bale might be eyeing another part – that of Oh Dae-Su’s (or Steve, as he’s known in this version*) nemesis. I’d actually be very happy with that also – I’ve always considered the casting of the antagonist in the 2003 original to be somewhat puzzling given– no, I’d best be careful here, don’t want to get in to spoiler territory.

I’ve said it before, but just to be clear I’m in no way an advocate of this remake. I’m just happy that it’s in the hands of a pretty fearless filmmaker – and not Spielberg & Will Smith as it was a few years earlier. There’s no way those guys would touch ‘that’ element of the story (and I’m not talking about the octopus.)

Spike Lee start shooting OLDBOY for Mandate Pictures next March.

* I can’t back that up.

Is Brolin a good choice? Any ideas who should play the female lead? Let us know with your comments below or on Twitter @Starburst_Mag