Despite initial worries about the idea of remaking Park Chan-Wook’s cult revenge thriller Oldboy, Spike Lee’s take on the story really seems to be locking in some solid talent, with Colin Firth now reportedly offered the role of the villain.

According to the team at Twitch – which has been a reliable source for news on the new movie – Firth has been approached about playing Adrian. If he signs on, he’ll be the nasty sort who imprisons Josh Brolin, leading some suitably violent retribution.

Lee has been slowly and carefully building the cast for the film (he had wanted Rooney Mara for one of the leads, but she’s apparently passed), and is definitely targeting great actors for the roles. Firth is best known for his heroic performances, but he's shown an underrated capacity for villainy before and we'd be intrigued to see what he'll do with a thorough no-goodnik.

Firth will next crop up as a con man in Gambit and will get his first taste of vengeful character acting in The Railway Man, about a survivor of World War II’s “death railway” in Burma who decides to track down his captors…