Tang Wei and Lee Joon-Gi to Star in 1960s Classic Remake?

Ohh... boy. This sounds way too crazy for words, so we're just treating it as an informed (?) rumor until there's further confirmation. There were similar musings a few days ago regarding 진시황 프로젝트 (The Qin Shi Huang Project), using a Chinese tabloid as the source for the apparent casting of Tang Wei and Jang Dong-Gun in the leading roles, but since they were still treating Luc Besson as someone working on this (and you know how high on the BS meter that was) I ended up ignoring it all. Sure enough, a day later Jang Dong-Gun denied any involvement with the film, saying he just received the script.

Now, shall we carefully try it again? Lee Man-Hee's 만추 (Full Autumn), starring Shin Sung-Il and Moon Jung-Sook, is not only one of the very best Korean films of the 60s, but also one which enjoyed quite a few remakes. First it was Saito Koichi in 1970, then master Kim Ki-Young in 1975, and finally Kim Su-Yong in 1982, so we're dealing with the fourth remake of the masterpiece. Since we have Korea and Japan on the list, how about the Chinese side? The fifth "installment" of Full Autumn is in fact supposed to be helmed by 墨攻 (A Battle of Wits)'s Jacob Cheung, in a Korea-China coproduction. Sources reveal the producers, who have been preparing this remake since the Fall of 2006, are very close to signing Tang Wei of 色, 戒 (Lust, Caution) and Lee Joon-Gi of 왕의 남자 (The King and The Clown) as the leads, with the final ink on paper expected to come within the end of the week. Young Lee is one of the rising stars in Asia, after striking it big with Lee Joon-Ik's clowns, and then starring in the badass TV action noir 개와 늑대의 시간 (Time Between Dog & Wolf) and the fusion sageuk 일지매 (Iljimae), and Tang should be pretty familiar to most film fans by now.

If they can get the feel of the original right, this could be really a killer melodrama, and with that kind of cast, a huge hit at least in Asia. Now we can only hope it won't join the ranks of tabloid bullshit art.

[DongA]