With Antoine Fuqua‘s The Equalizer hitting theaters this weekend (read Brad’s review) and his Jake Gyllenhaal boxing drama Southpaw in post-production, it was only a matter of time before Fuqua chose his next project, and it appears he is re-teaming with The Equalizer star Denzel Washington for a remake of The Magnificent Seven.
John Sturges’ 1960 western is itself a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, so it seems we will have a remake of a remake on our hands here. Concerning The Magnificent Seven, the film follows a band of gunfighters hired to protect a small peasant village. It was nominated for one Oscar, a Best Score nod for Elmer Bernstein (Sweet Smell of Success).
As for Fuqua’s plan of attack, he couldn’t give away any details to MovieWeb, but he did offer this up:
My biggest influence is Seven Samurai, that’s what I really love. The Magnificent Seven I love as well, there are so many great actors in that movie. It’s a different way in, but it’s the same concept. It’s not going to be something where people won’t recognize it, for sure. There’s certainly going to be the Yul Brynner type of role, the Steve McQueen, all those roles are there, and the town that needs help. It’s a different way in on this one, and the writers did a great job working on it.
Obviously we are a ways off from seeing this one, as the other six members of the titular seven have yet to be found, but Antoine Fuqua does lend a specific type of energy to his films, so it’s possible he’s truly found “a different way in.” With remakes, the new director is almost always the first to say “it’s the same, but different”, so it’ll be interesting to see what exactly he does to spice things up.
Elsewhere in remake land, director Roger Donaldson (The November Man) has been attached to Radar Pictures’ retelling of Lewis Milestone’s 1930 Best Picture-winner All Quiet on the Western Front, a film that depicts a young World War I soldier as he experiences the anxieties and horrors of the battlefield.
According to Variety, Donaldson seeks to “capture the gritty realism and unforgiving nature of trench warfare,” which sounds like a movie I’d very much like to see if it’s done right.
Donaldson will direct a script from newcomers Ian Stokell and Lesley Paterson, which is said to be a new adaptation of the 1929 novel and not a straight re-write of the 1930 film. There is no word yet on a cast, or even names swirling the project, but my immediate reaction is to hope for some lesser-known actors to lead the film. It’s easy to re-imagine a film and sell it with a hot name (see above), but unknowns often have the ability to more easily draw us into the story and connect us with the characters.
If nothing else, the news of remakes of classics like The Magnificent Seven and All Quiet on the Western Front might encourage younger viewers to check out the originals (myself ashamedly included), so while we continually find ourselves bombarded with remakes and reboots of properties already in the marketplace, we can hopefully at least identify one silver lining if these new films aren’t quite up to snuff.
