Luc Besson's (Nikita, Leon The Professional) next film has begun production (via ThePlaylist) and will be a crazy sounding sci-fi action flick titled Lucy which stars Scarlett Johansson. Lucy (Johansson), a drug mule has the goods (super soldier formula?) get into her system making her a badass super assassin (think Bradley Cooper's character in Limitless meets Matt Damon's Jason Bourne). The film co-stars Morgan Freeman and Old Boy's Choi Min-sik. It's also a perfect role for Scarlett Johansson post-Winter Soldier and pre-Age of Ultron to keep the actress in fighting shape.
“I Saw the Devil” is a Korean revenge thriller about the death of a government agent’s girl-friend and his unbroken and almost sadistic will to make her killer suffer. The serial killer is played by “Old Boy” star Choi Min-sik and the government agent is played by Lee Byung-hyum ( Hero, GI Joe: Rise of Cobra). This film has been compared to Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy (containing Oldboy). The director is Kim Ji-woon, who has found recent international success with his “The Good, The Bad, The Weird.” Considering, the great cast and proven director, I think this film will be an excellent grunge revenge tale and eventually get a successful US release. In recent years, Korean films have been slowly but increasingly finding an audience in the United States. More popular films that have been released in the US are, “The Host”, “Oldboy”, “My Wife is a Gagster”, “My Sassy Girl” and “II mare” (remade as The Lake House). I’ve seen both “The Host” and “Oldboy” and recommend them but with some small stipulations. “Oldboy” is excellent but extremely gruesome and not suitable for the squeamish and The Host has a unique take on the monster genre, with some impressive cinematic attributes; but its special effects and overall story were somewhat ungratifying.
