In the works for a long time now, this is a project we hoped would sit around, collect dust and never really happen but now there is fresh movement and we couldn’t be more nauseated.
Variety reports that The Weinstein Company is pushing forward on their lame-brained “Seven Samurai” remake and hired Scott Mann to direct it. Who is Scott Mann? Maybe you saw his film “The Tournament” which got the geek set all excited because of its premise — assassins hunt each other in an ultimate battle royale — but was pretty turgid overall. But they have a lot of faith in this guy because they’re going to give him a ridiculous $60 million to make the movie that will place the story in contemporary setting, in Northern Thailand, and it will switch out samurais for paramilitary contractors who are hired to protect a village, thus stripping the entire point of Akira Kurosawa‘s classic to begin with. Great work everybody.
John Fusco (“The Forbidden Kingdom,” “Young Guns“) is penning the script which should tell you all you need to know about this horrid idea. The plan is to shoot the film later this year but hopefully, it won’t come to fruition. But Hollywood has an obsession with trying to remake Kurosawa. “Ikiru” was seriously considered as a Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg joint years ago and just last year Chris Rock (yeah, that Chris Rock) was hired on to pen “High & Low” for Mike Nichols. Can’t we just leave these films alone?