Who knows what we would have got had Will Smith and Steven Spielberg followed through with their plans to remake Chan-wook Park’s Oldboy, but, odds are, it would have been entirely different than the one we’re getting from Josh Brolin and Spike Lee on Wednesday, November 27th. Brolin stars as Joe Doucett, an advertising executive decimating his career and family life with his abysmal behavior and alcohol addiction. At the tail end of one particularly drunken night, Joe is snatched off the street and wakes up in solitary confinement. After 20 years of loneliness and dumplings, he’s suddenly released and challenged to figure out why he served such a lengthy sentence.

With Oldboy nearing its wide release, Lee sat down to talk about working with cinematographer Sean Bobbitt, the intensity of shooting a three and a half-minute one-shot fight sequence, the importance of surrounding yourself with great talent, his Neil Bogart biopic Spinning Gold, and more. Hear it all for yourself after the jump.

If you missed my video interview with Elizabeth Olsen, Michael Imperioli, or screenwriter Mark Protosevich, click the links.

Spike Lee:

• Using multiple film formats and the Super 8 footage that didn’t make the final cut.
• The challenge of keeping the solitary confinement scenes visually interesting.
• The three and a half-minute one-shot.
• What happens when you suffer from film school jargon word vomit.
• What kind of actor’s director is he?
• On his new film, Spinning Gold.