After a casting process that involved making rejected offers to Christian Bale, Clive Owen, and even Colin Firth, director Spike Lee has finally given the key villain role in his Oldboy remake to District 9 star Sharlto Copley, who makes up for what he lacks in marquee name recognition with near-total anonymity. That's actually a positive: With only his wiry alien social worker in District 9 and his pop-addled insane guy in The A-Team to identify him to audiences, most won't know what to expect from Copley's turn as the billionaire creep out to ruin Josh Brolin's life (and the night of anyone who makes the mistake of watching Oldboy with their family). And when it comes to a remake of a movie whose major twists have been spoiled for nearly a decade, after all, any last lingering shred of surprise is welcome.
Copley joins Lee, Brolin, and the previously announced Elizabeth Olsen on the Oldboy shoot this September, and it's possible that soon after audiences will also get to know him as the similarly just confirmed star of Open Grave, in which Copley will play a man who awakens in a pit of rotting corpses and begins to suspect he's a murderer. (Then again, Open Grave is directed by Apollo 18's Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego, so maybe not.)