Will Smith Up For ‘The Wild Bunch’ Remake
Warner Brothers has had their sights on a remake of Sam Peckinpah's western masterpiece 'The Wild Bunch' for quite some time, and they may have found their perfect leading man in Will Smith, who's looking to produce and star in their contemporary version.
That said, perfect for them isn't exactly perfect for film fans who may reject the notion of a 'Wild Bunch' remake outright. But as The Wrap notes in their exclusive story, the remake is an updated take on the material that transposes the story from the dawn of the twentieth century to modern day and will "follow a disgraced D.E.A. agent who assembles a team to go after a Mexican drug lord and his fortune."
The project has already had a couple writers attached (the late Tony Scott was attached to direct at one point) and with Smith likely to board, it will surely be reworked again for his sensibilities. But from premise of the remake, it seems likely that Smith would be D.E.A. agent who would likely team up with bad guys in the pursuit of taking down someone even worse. Which is why getting up in arms about the remake factor is hard. It doesn't even sound that 'Wild' to begin with. In fact, it sounds more like a men on a mission story (or a redress of 'The Magnificent Seven') than the story of older bandits looking for one last score.