Futabasha, the Japanese publisher of Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi’s Old Boy manga, is suing the Korean production company Show East over the rights to remake the story into a Hollywood film. Show East produced the critically acclaimed 2003 Korean movie directed by Park Chan-Wook.

Futabasha is suing to confirm the lack of a binding contract between the two parties, due to an alleged breach. Futabasha asserts that Show East violated its basic agreement with Futabasha, and thus nullified it, when Show East pushed for the production of a film remake with America’s Universal Pictures. Show East signed its contract with Futabasha over film rights in September of 2002, and signed a second contract in December of 2003 that amended the original one to cover other materials.

Three million people saw Chan-Wook’s Old Boy film in South Korea. Last November, Director Steven Spielberg and action star Will Smith were discussing a possible collaboration to remake the film. However, later that same month, Smith stated that Spielberg’s team was adapting the original Old Boy manga, and not remaking the Korean film version.

Dark Horse Comics published the manga in North America and the UK from 2006 to 2007 and the manga won an Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material.