Antoine Fuqua's update of the classic western THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN has found it's black hat: Peter Saarsgaard has joined the all-star cast in the villain role. The exact character has yet to be revealed, but Variety reports the negotiations for the film are in the final stages.
Saarsgard joins the already cast Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Chris Pratt, Vincent D’Onofrio, Wagner Moura, Haley Bennett,Lee Byung-hun, Matt Bomer and Jason Momoa.
The new version’s story kicks off when a woman (Bennett) hires a disparate group of gunslingers to protect her town from rampaging bandits that are led by a robber baron.
Peter Sarsgaard has been a consistently strong actor for years and is set to have one hell of a 2015. He has two movies coming out, PAWN SACRIFICE and THE EXPERIMENTER, that have garnered good festival reviews. He also has the buzzed about BLACK MASS with Johnny Depp slated for release later this year. Sarsgaard has always been good at playing duplicitous characters and even had experience as comic book villain Hector Hammond in GREEN LANTERN. I can easily see him playing a great western bad guy.
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN is shaping up to be a must see movie. It is set for release in 2016.