Remember that remake of The Magnificent Seven that has been snaking its way through development since May? Well, it has apparently taken another big step forward. Nic Pizzolatto, who is a relative newcomer in Hollywood, has been hired by MGM to write a script based on John Sturges’ 1960 western classic. The movie already has Tom Cruise set to star.
The original film, which itself was a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, followed a group of gunmen who work together to protect a small Mexican village. The cast of the movie was stacked, with Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter and Horst Buchholz playing the heroes and genre legend Eli Wallach as the leader of the bandits attacking the town. Three sequels were produced after the success of the first movie and from 1998 to 2000 CBS ran a television series based on it.
When it was first reported that Cruise was interested in the film the story said that the project was not in anybody’s immediate plans, and Variety says things haven’t changed much. There is no director yet involved. In June there was a rumor that Matt Damon could be joining the production, but the trade’s new report doesn’t mention the star’s name.
Cruise will next be seen in Christopher McQuarrie's Jack Reacher and recently completed work on Joseph Kosinski's sci-fi epic Oblivion. He is currently attached to star in the Doug Liman thriller All You Need Is Kill.
