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Allen Hughes Lands Remake of Korean Crime Film 'A Bittersweet Life'

by Ben Pearson
September 21, 2012
Source: Deadline

Allen Hughes is one half of the directing duo the Hughes Brothers, who helmed The Book of Eli and From Hell. After their attempt to direct a live-action version of Akira fell apart, the duo moved on to individual projects, with Allen directing a film called Broken City with Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, and Catherine Zeta-Jones and Albert (confusing, I know) hired to direct a separate project called Motor City (even more confusing). But Allen already has more work lined up, because Deadline reports he's been hired to helm a remake of the excellent Korean crime drama called A Bittersweet Life from Jee-woon Kim. Read on.

A remake of The Good, The Bad, The Weird and I Saw The Devil director Kim Jee-woon's 2005 film, A Bittersweet Life follows a manager of a hotel who is an enforcer for the crime boss who owns it. He's told to keep an eye on the boss' mistress, who might be having an affair, and when the enforcer discovers the mistress is cheating, he's supposed to kill them both. Trouble is, he's fallen for the mistress, so he beats up the cheating man and makes them promise to never see each other again, and kicks off a chain reaction that ultimately pits him against his boss with the girl in the center of everything. Sounds pretty great to me, and not just a typical "get out of jail, immediately look for revenge" story that seem to be prevalent these days.

Screenwriter Anthony Peckham, whose credits include Sherlock Holmes and Paramount's new Jack Ryan film, is taking the latest pass at the script, which makes sense considering he previously worked with the Hughes Brothers on The Book of Eli. I really dug The Book of Eli and am excited to see Hughes take on this project, which could really stand out from its contemporaries if the love story elements are handled correctly. We'll be keeping our eye on this one, so keep checking back for more updates.

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