There are few stories that have become as famous and adapted in various forms as that of “The Seven Samurai.” Akira Kurosawa‘s 1954 masterpiece has been referenced so many times, it has its own trope on TV Tropes for when another piece of media makes reference of its plot and structure. One of the more notable adaptations is the 1960 American western film “The Magnificent Seven.” It featured an all-star cast of the time, including Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn.
In 2016, the film was remade with a new batch of all-stars for Sony pictures, but now that Amazon owns MGM, the Seven are going to ride again in an Amazon original series. Nic Pizzolatto, who co-wrote the 2016 remake (and created “True Detective” ), is creating this new series.
Amazon acquired MGM and its rich catalog of films and intellectual properties 2 years ago. As it turns out, one of those properties was “The Magnificent Seven.” Very much like the original Japanese film, the movie tells the tale of a village that’s being attacked by a group of bandits. Unable to fight back themselves and tired of the thieving and bloodshed, the village aims to hire a group of gunmen (Samurai in the original version) to fight off the bandits.
The American remake is oft considered one of the best films in the western genre, and was popular enough to spawn three sequels and a late 1990’s television series that lasted for two seasons. According to reports, this new series isn’t a continuation of any previous project, including that of the 2016 remake. Instead, this will be another straight remake of the film, but in the format of a television series. While an episode count hasn’t been given, there’s definitely enough content to be able to extend it into a series, especially given that the “The Seven Samurai” managed to be 3 hours and 20 minutes long.
We’ll let you know what we hear about this and other projects.
