High Noon again?

The success of the recent 3:10 TO YUMA remake (or the exposure anyway — the film is still trotting toward its $55 million budget) seems to have helped raise some interest in the westerns once again. Existing westerns, at least.

An update of the classic 1952 slow-burning showdown HIGH NOON is in the works with producer Mark Headley and actor Christopher Mitchum (son of tough-guy actor Robert Mitchum). The tense original movie starred Oscar-winner Gary Cooper as the former sheriff of a small Kansas town who returns when he learns a vicious outlaw and his gang are arriving on the noon train. Unable to find assistance from the town’s citizens, the reinstated sheriff faces the criminal — who he sent to lockup — alone.

Mitchum and Headley (who appear to have filmographies built on Z-grade schlock) are planning to quickly secure a star and director, with the intent of shooting early 2008 with a $20 million budget.