Will Smith may have killed the big screen western when he made the god awful WILD, WILD WEST back in 1999, but he is going to give the genre one more try, albeit a modernized one, if plans work out for him to star in a remake of Sam Peckinpah‘s seminal THE WILD BUNCH.
According to The Wrap, Smith will produce the update of THE WILD BUNCH alongside Jerry Weintraub, who produced THE KARATE KID remake starring Jaden Smith. While the original movie took place in 1913 and followed an older group of outlaws planning a heist on the Texas-Mexico border, sources say the new take will be:
A modern remake involving cartels south of the border, the “Wild Bunch” reboot is expected to follow a disgraced D.E.A. agent who assembles a team to go after a Mexican drug lord and his fortune.
I prefer Will Smith in his BAD BOYS mode and not the watered down PG-13 he has been stuck in for years. If a remake of THE WILD BUNCH is coming, it will have to be an R-rated, violent movie and not a teen friendly summer movie. The project is looking for a director and a new writer to work on the draft started by Brian Helgeland back before Tony Scott died. David Ayer was involved at one point and was the first name that popped into my head when I heard about this project. Hopefully we get a nice cast surrounding Smith and THE WILD BUNCH kicks all sorts of ass.