Due to CinemaCon, we’re getting the scoop on a lot of upcoming films, both ones due out this year and beyond. One such revelation is a banner for Training Day director Antoine Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven, scripted by John Lee Hancock (A Perfect World) and Nic Pizzolatto (“True Detective“), which is due in theaters on September 23rd. A remake of the 1960 John Sturges classic (itself a loose remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai), Fuqua’s film is just as star-studded as its predecessor.
Behold your new Seven…
Since we cannot see it up close, the characters pictured (from left to right) are
- Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo)
- Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio)
- Josh Farraday (Chris Pratt)
- Sam Chisholm (Denzel Washington)
- Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke)
- Billy Rocks (Lee Byung-hun)
- Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier)
Rounding out the rest of the cast are the likes of Haley Bennett, Matt Bomer, Luke Grimes, Billy Slaughter, Sean Bridgers, Cam Gigandet, Vinnie Jones, and Peter Sarsgaard. The latter is our big baddie, Bartholomew Bogue.
“Billy Rocks”. “Bartholomew Bogue”. “Goodnight Robicheaux”. God, I love some of these character names.
These thespians follow in the footsteps of Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Eli Wallach, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Charles Bronson, and many more. The original film eventually spawned three sequels: Return of the Seven (1966), Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969), and The Magnificent Seven Ride (1972). Only Brynner returned for the first sequel and even he was eventually recast, with hero Chris Adams played by George Kennedy in Guns and Lee Van Cleef in Ride.
There was also a rather fun TV series in the late ’90s that ran for two years, starring the likes of Michael Biehn, Ron Perlman, Laurie Holden, and Dale Midkiff, among others. Beyond that, there have been countless rip-offs/homages, from the science fiction exploitation epic Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) to the Italian trash sword-slinger The Seven Magnificent Barbarians (1983).
Will Fuqua’s reboot (which will contain James Horner’s final film score) live up to the fun of some of these classics (be they of the undisputed or cult variety)? I guess we’ll find out this fall!