It would seem that Tony Scott is a bit jealous of his brother getting so many headlines. Earlier today, of course, it was announced that Ridley Scott will be helming a reboot of Blade Runner, one of films that launched the filmmakers career, and a few minutes ago producer Andrew Kosove spilled a few details about the project's background and schedule. Not to be outdone, the younger brother has now attached himself to a new project and it's a pretty big one.
Deadline reports that Tony Scott is now in talks with Warner Bros. to helm the remake of Sam Peckinpah's 1969 western classic The Wild Bunch. Discussions about a remake first came up in January following the departure of executive Jessica Goodman. After Goodman left, all of her in-development projects, including The Wild Bunch, were distributed to other executives. While it could end up being Scott's next film, he is weighing two other projects at the moment as well, including Hell's Angels and his Top Gun sequel.
Reading the report, it sounds like Hell's Angels is where Scott's mind is right now, but it may depend on who he can get to play Sonny Barger, the leader of the infamous biker gang. According the the site's sources, the director wants Jeff Bridges for the role, but between the actor's concert tour and commitments to both R.I.P.D. and The Seventh Son, his schedule is pretty packed. While Scott has held the rights to the brilliant Hunter S. Thompson book "Hell's Angels" for years now, it looks like the movie will be dealing with separate events. Deadline says the story will be set in 2002 during the River Run Riot and the rivalry between the Angels and The Mongols. Scott Frank, who has written some incredible movies like Out of Sight, Minority Report and Get Shorty, has been hired to rewrite the script by Stephen Gaghan.
Some remakes are totally justifiable, but I truly cannot wrap my brain around a Wild Bunch remake. The original is one of the best westerns ever made and having re-watched it recently I can confidently say that it hasn't aged at all. With any luck this will be one of the projects that Tony Scott says he's going to direct but ends up getting put on the back-burner forever.
