UPDATE: Okay, now Kate Bosworth has been confirmed by Variety as Marsden’s wife in the feature. As much as the Skarsgard casting impressed me, Bosworth’s addition… not so much. On top of that, the more fleshed out storyline from Variety sounds rather generic to me. I updated the article below to contain all the new information.
Well, I am not exactly excited for Rod Lurie’s update on Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs, but the idea “True Blood” co-star Alexander Skarsgard has landed a role has me a little more optimistic as he has joined the cast along with Kate Bosworth.
James Marsden stars in the film in a role that was previously occupied by Dustin Hoffman in the 1971 original thriller I urge all of you to watch, but it appears this remake is going to hardly be anything like the original and is beginning to smell truly vanilla.
Marsden plays a Hollywood screenwriter who relocates with his wife to her hometown in Mississippi. Bosworth plays the wife, who left the South for LA. to become an actress and returns home so her husband can finish his script in quiet. Skarsgard plays her high school boyfriend, an ex-football hero who sees the return of his former girlfriend as a way to reclaim glory.
The big change right off the bat is the decision to move the film from the English setting of the original and send it into the South, although that is one thing that bothers me as I am concerned it is going to play to traditional country bumpkin stereotypes. As for Skarsgard playing an ex-football hero and Bosworth’s high school boyfriend sounds so “been-there-done-that.”
I wrote more on my thoughts on the remake back in April, but have since toned down my concern seeing how a remake can’t hurt the original so why should I bother myself? Perhaps we’ll have a pair of good films to look back on.
As it stands now the film was originally set for an August 2010 release, but has since been moved to TBA status. Screen Gems will distribute.
