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?
This free to view blog is the closet Kevin Jagernauth will ever get to the film industry. What a loser.
It\’s a miracle getting your first film made, think you got to judge a director on his second? Mind you seems you can pay dirt first time out then make a load of schlock. Bryan Singer anyone?
Well said Easy Tiger.
Stupid article. When you\’ve won xx Oscars then people can leave you to chose the directors…
B.
I think we should flip this and actually look at this from the point of view of the Weinsteins. Undoubtedly these guys are the most successful and notorious independent film producers on Earth and fresh off the back of Oscar and Bafta ridden Kings Speach, they decide to re surge the remake of one of the greatest and most revered films of all time. In doing so, they research up and comers and Hollywood stars and settle on Mann. Although we are all movie buffs and adorers, this film has been remade multiple times and we should therefore really cut the Weinsteins some slack as let\’s face it, they kind of deserve it and know what the he\’ll they are doing choosing a director more than we do.
SJVP, it\’s not exactly a genre-wank. You\’ll enjoy 13 Assassins even if you haven\’t seen any other samurai films.
Also, Kev, c\’mon now. Scott Mann\’s got chops. Better him than some of the middlebrow assholes already generating huge paychecks at studios (Ratner, Wiseman, et al.)
You guys are trying SO HARD to be hip and cool with your hatred of easy targets and use of meaningless hyperbole that it\’s almost adorable.
I have a question that may require the Playlist team\’s knowledge. Should I go and see 13 Assassins having not seen Seven Samurai or any other samurai film, let alone any of Takeshi Miike\’s work? I hear it subverts the genre so I was wondering if any specific genre knowledge is needed or just a broad sense of samurai code. Thanks in advance for answering my rather stupid question
Jackie Chan, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, Dolph Lundgren, Kurt Angle, Gary Daniels and Michael Jai White as the paramilitary contractors