Oldboy -- Spike Lee & Chan-Wook Park -- What's with Hollywood Remakes of Foreign Films?

here's yet another entry into the ever growing canon 

of Hollywood remaking foreign films...

this time, Spike Lee's "re-imagining" of Oldboy...

"Old Boy" (2013)

dir. Spike Lee

Following in the footsteps of David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Spike Lee's Oldboy looks like a movie which didn't need to be made & who nobody was asking for.  I'm not sure why it was remade.  The original is pretty popular and well known already.  But, maybe, Americans just have a problem with caring about stuff that's not explicitly American.

Also, American remakes of foreign films always lose significance because they become permanently re-codified with a primarily American perspective on the story.

It's especially odd since Dir. Chan-Wook Park has now released a film through Hollywood--

Stoker (2013)

Dir. Chan-Wook Park

Why rehash Park's story for American audience when he himself has created a new story for American audiences?

To be fair, Spike Lee's Oldboy was delayed... it may have been in production before Park's Stoker began...

In one way, it's a sign of how popular the entity has become.  As with Dragon Tattoo and Let the Right One In, Oldboy has become recognized by Hollywood as a successful & notable franchise.   The greatest compliment is imitation, right?

Apparently, Josh Brolin asked Director Park for his blessing in remaking Oldboy; to which Park replied with something like:  "Don't remake my movie, you and Spike should make your own movie."* sourced.

This was interpreted by Lee & Brolin as "take creative liberties with the project; make it yours"... but it also sounds a lot like "Come up with a new idea guys."

I'm confused how or why Spike Lee became attached to this project?

But I haven't looked very hard for an answer.

I'd rather wait for an original movie.