Though he ultimately turned down the chance to go West (well, more South) with Quentin Tarantino, Will Smith clearly wants to dabble in the Western genre again and perhaps wash the taste of Wild Wild West from our collective cine-palate. Still, we’re not sure how many supporters he’ll win initially by contemplating Warner Bros. remake of** The Wild Bunch.
Sam Peckinpah’s 1969 classic found an aging group of outlaws looking to make one final big score on the Texas-Mexico border, and looked at the problems they face as the Old West they knew vanishes around them in 1913.
The remake would throw the plot forward in time to today (at least, according to The Wrap), where a disgraced D.E.A. agent looks to recruit a team and go after a Mexican drug lord and his gang.
Tony Scott was developing this one before his death and the script has been though the hands of Brian Helgeland and David Ayer already.
Warners and Smith, who plans to co-produce via his Overbook company, are now starting the hunt for a new writer and director. Remaking Peckinpah is a dicey proposition (try asking the team behind the 2011 Straw Dogs), and this will have to go some way to match the original.
Smith, meanwhile, will be back on our screens for After Earth, which lands on June 7.
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