Nordling here.
Big fan of Christopher McQuarrie, who we know as a fantastic screenwriter and whose WAY OF THE GUN is a damn good crime film as well. He's doing the Lee Child adaptation of the Jack Reacher novel ONE SHOT with Tom Cruise, and miscasting aside, he managed to score the great Werner Herzog as the villain. But his next adaptation will have some movie purists pulling their hair out.
Look, SEVEN SAMURAI keeps swapping places with E.T. as my favorite film of all time. So personally, I've got a lot invested in any kind of remake. Now the idea of using the template of the story in different ways, as a Western in MAGNIFICIENT SEVEN or as a kids' movie in A BUG'S LIFE, I'm fine with that. McQuarrie announced today at New York Comic-Con that he will also try his hand at adapting the material, except this time it's Afghanistan, instead of roving bandits, it's the Taliban, and instead of samurais, it's Navy SEALS.
We all know SEALs are badass - hell, they practically are modern day samurai - so I'm fine with RUBICON. The story will also be a video game and graphic novel, so this will be a multi-tiered product. I'm very sensitive of any remake of the original Akira Kurosawa classic, but this passes muster with me. If it were most any other director/writer, I'd blow it off, but Christopher McQuarrie has the chops and the background to make this work. One of the producers, Dan Capel, is a member of SEAL Team Six, McQuarrie's own brother is a Navy SEAL, so they will treat the subject matter tastefully and seriously, and anyone who loves film in any kind of manner must love the original, right? I can't help that someone knew this was coming, due to the ACT OF VALOR trailer we got earlier this week. But RUBICON has the source material that really compels and this could be quite a good film.
Besides, the Blu-Ray is still on my shelf. I just might take it down this weekend. I don't need much of an excuse to watch SEVEN SAMURAI again.
Nordling, out.
