Josh Brolin sought out Chan-Wook Park's blessing before he agreed to star in a remake of the director's classic 2003 thriller Oldboy.
The chilling original focused on a newly-released kidnap victim seeking answers about his 15 years of captivity.
Brolin, who has replaced Will Smith as the lead in Spike Lee's remake, had to make sure the film's original director was happy for his movie to be given the Hollywood makeover before he signed on.
He tells Total Film magazine, "I wrote an email to Park, who I really love, when I tried to get him to direct (action film) Jonah Hex. He almost did it, and when I let him go, I was like, 'If you're not completely into this, then we'll find something else to do together.'
"Then I said, 'I want your blessing to do OldBoy' 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.'"