Variety reported today that the remake of John Sturges’ 1960 classic Western The Magnificent Seven is officially in the pipeline. CraveOnline reported way back in May of 2012 that Tom Cruise may be attached to this project, but it has been in development ever since, and the official word is out on the final cast. As it turns out Sony and MGM will be teaming up for this gigantic film, with Sony co-financing and distributing and MGM covering the rest of the budget.
The original 1960 film, itself a Western remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 Samurai classic The Seven Samurai, starred a rogues gallery of famous faces, including Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn, Horst Buchotlz, and Brad Dexter as the titular seven, with Eli Wallach rounding out the bunch. Both films were about a small band of seven warriors enlisted by an impoverished town to help them fend off gigantic bands of evil bandits. This new version will star Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, and Haley Bennett (and presumably three more).
Check Out: Tom Cruise May Be Attached to ‘Magnificent Seven’
Antoine Fuqua, the man behind Training Day, Tears of the Sun, The Equalizer, and Olympus Has Fallen, is slated to direct. If he does, this will be his largest project to date; most of his films tend to be about lone badasses in an urban or combat setting. This will be his first true ensemble piece.
The remake of The Magnificent Seven is showing a new trend for new Westerns, a genre often declared dead by critics. However, in recent years we have seen a remake of 3:10 to Yuma, several soulful indie Westerns like The Salvation, and, of course, Quentin Tarantino’s forays into the genre Django Unchained and his upcoming The Hateful Eight. Perhaps a Western boom is on the horizon, partner.
Now let’s enjoy that music again:
Witney Seibold is a contributor to the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
