Hey folks, Harry here... ... ...sometimes - sometimes it's really hard to write these little announcements about upcoming films. Especially the remakes. Ultimately - I get the why. Why remake THE SEVEN SAMURAI? Name recognition. A strong marketable title. But... you can't hope to make a better film. And to have the film be a "development" item. A film that is being tooled by studio execs with no director attached out of passion... that makes it harder. That they pre-attach Ziyi Zhang... a star I love, but who honestly... isn't Japanese. And just right from the get go, I find that in the annoying side. The whole all asians look the same, Americans won't notice mentality. It drove me fucking nuts with MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA... which Spielberg apparently was planning to make for $10 million and all in Japanese for Sony, which didn't find that idea appealing, so instead blew out tons of money for a completely unauthentic feeling film - that just happened to be gorgeous. But in that film - the whole time I was watching it... there was that part of my brain that was saying... none of these actors are Japanese... except for that one and those couple of background actors... oh and that one there. It's a pet peeve. But it's a peeve, ya know?

Anyway - who is the screenwriter? John Fusco. The guy behind YOUNG GUNS and HIDALGO. Now... I like both of those films, but yeah... SEVEN SAMURAI? I just... I just don't know. Let's see who they end up attaching as director. Who would take the job? Variety ran the story today...

""Samurai," which routinely shows up on crix lists of all-time best pics, is one of a trio of Asian classic remakes that Ziyi Zhang is in negotiations to star in for the Weinstein Co." - Variety