Josh Brolin wanted to get Park Chan-wook's blessing before he agreed to sign up to the remake of Old Boy.

The actor is to star alongside Elizabeth Olsen in a new version of Park's 2003 violent thriller - which is being directed by Spike Lee - but admitted he did have some reservations beforehand.

"Spike Lee's doing Old Boy and it's different and the same. I wrote an email to Park, who I really love, when I tried to get him to direct Jonah Hex. I was like, 'If you're not completely into this, then we'll find something else to do together.' But then I said, 'I want your blessing to do Old Boy.' He wrote back this beautiful letter and it said, 'I love remakes and I think it's great, just don't do it exactly like we did.'"

Josh, 44, recently revealed the remake of Old Boy will be "severely" violent: "I think we're going to go for it, I think we're going to give 1000 per cent to this one."