Smith circles modern take of the Western.
Hollywood’s long-in-development reboot of Sam Peckinpah’s classic ‘The Wild Bunch’ is back on track with TheWrap hearing that Will Smith (‘After Earth’) has begun talks with Warner Bros. to come aboard to produce and star.
Released in 1969, Peckinpah’s original featured an ensemble cast that included William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O’Brien, Warren Oates, Jaime Sanchez and Ben Johnson. The Western followed an aging outlaw gang that try for one last score on the Texas-Mexico border, while trying to exist in the changing “modern” world of 1913.
The late Tony Scott (‘Déjà Vu,’ ‘Man on Fire,’ ‘Enemy of the State’) was set to direct the reboot, with his ‘Man on Fire’ screenwriter Brian Helgeland attached to provide the screenplay. Apparently Helgeland never got to finish the screenplay before Scott’s death, and now the studio is looking to bring in a new writer with plans to put a modern spin on the original.
According to the trade, the reboot will involve drug cartels and would see Smith playing a disgraced D.E.A. agent who assembles a team to go after a Mexican drug lord and his fortune.