Yesterday we reported that Mandate Pictures has hired director Spike Lee for the studio's Oldboy remake. It seems Mandate is shifting the focus over to casting with Josh Brolin reportedly the top candidate for the lead role.

No formal offers have been made to Josh Brolin yet, although it seems he is at the top of their list. Mark Protosevich is writing the screenplay and there are some new details on the story of this remake.

Mark Protosevich is reportedly using both the original Japanese book and the Oldboy movie as reference for the remake, although the movie will have more of an influence than the novel. It is also said that approximately 20% of the remake is brand new material invented by Mark Protosevich. Here's an article excerpt about what to expect from this new version of Oldboy.

"Just as Chan-wook Park took a central concept from the Japanese manga while radically re-envisioning parts to create something new, the goal here is not to create a slavish shot-for-shot remake but to take elements of the Park film combined with elements of the manga and completely re-envision and re-contextualize those to create a specifically American story around the same concepts and themes. Time will tell what that actually looks like on screen."

Nothing has been confirmed yet regarding the Oldboy remake story or Josh Brolin's potential involvement yet.