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Mel Gibson to direct The Wild Bunch remake (1 Viewer)

Angelo Colombus

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Mel Gibson has been set by Warner Bros to direct a new version of the 1969 classic Western. Gibson is co-writing the script and will be executive producer. I guess it was going happen sooner or later!
 

Robert Crawford

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I consider "The Wild Bunch" as one of my top five favorite films. It's up there with "The Searchers" and "Night of the Hunter" to name a few of my all-time favorites. With that said, I have very few qualms about them doing a remake. Mel Gibson and I are about the same age so I think he'll do right with this remake of a great film that came out during our formative teenage years.
 

Bernard McNair

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I admire much of Mr. Gibson’s work as both an actor and director. Why he or anyone else would think they can remake The Wild Bunch is beyond my thinking. The Wild Bunch is a seminal piece of cinema and as such should be left free of a remake.
 

Nick*Z

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Yet another remake... :wacko:

My thoughts exactly. Why are we remaking every classic western to come out of Hollywood: 3:10 to Yuma, True Grit, The Magnificent Seven and now this - boring... and very, VERY unnecessary! John Waters said it best when he suggested "You don't remake good movies, you remake the bad ones hoping to make them better!"

The 'other' remakes of late have not fared any better. Did anyone see the remakes of Papillon and Ben-Hur? Atrocious drivel. How do you compete with Dustin Hoffman, Steve McQueen and Charlton Heston? Oh right...you can't! Just my thoughts.
 

Winston T. Boogie

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Obviously, one of my favorite films as well, as you can probably tell by the image of Bill Holden to the left of this entry.

So, first thing that comes to mind is, this does not need to be remade. The original film is basically perfect and captures everything they were trying to say and do. So, why go back to this?

Here's the first thing I wonder when they go to remake something like this...who are they going to cast in these parts? The actors in The Wild Bunch are all PERFECT! Holden, Borgnine, Johnson, Oates, Ryan...I mean who the hell do we have now that can step into these parts? These guys all brought incredible gravitas to their roles and came across as men.

The Wild Bunch is not a film about young men. It is about a group of old men, past their prime, set in a dying world...or world that is passing them by. The west/country as they know it is vanishing right before their eyes. They are all ready for their own ends.

Name some recent films that feature a group of older men as the leads? This is where the whole art and commerce thing collides. So, Warner Brothers have apparently wanted to remake this for years but will they want to do it correctly or are they going to want to cast a bunch of young actors in the parts...which frankly would be ridiculous and if that's what they want to do they should just call it something else.

So, all that said I still would like to see more Westerns in a cinema and we probably are always more likely to get remakes than original projects so this is probably the kind of thing we are going to see.

I guess Gibson could also act in it, he is the right age, Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Penn, I don't know...you need to cast older guys though. Kevin Costner? The thing is I'm not certain any of these guys are a box office draw anymore and to younger people this would just be "Old Guys with Guns on Horses" and I don't think they would buy a ticket to that.

So, we could get you know crap like Chris Pratt in the William Holden role which frankly would be vomit inducing.

What I would much rather see is Warner Brothers invest in having Mel direct Blood Meridian...that would be awesome.
 
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Robert Crawford

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My thoughts exactly. Why are we remaking every classic western to come out of Hollywood: 3:10 to Yuma, True Grit, The Magnificent Seven and now this - boring... and very, VERY unnecessary! John Waters said it best when he suggested "You don't remake good movies, you remake the bad ones hoping to make them better!"

The 'other' remakes of late have not fared any better. Did anyone see the remakes of Papillon and Ben-Hur? Atrocious drivel. How do you compete with Dustin Hoffman, Steve McQueen and Charlton Heston? Oh right...you can't! Just my thoughts.
Any western being made today is alright with me. Some are great like "Open Range" some are pretty good like "True Grit" while others are just okay like "The Magnificent Seven". TBH, I wish Spielberg or Scorsese would do a western because they studied the film masters of old and would right by them.
 

Winston T. Boogie

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It'll be another Gipson gore-fest.

This is in part why I think Mel would be a good choice to direct Blood Meridian as he would not back down from the fact that it is a nasty piece of business. It does not have "Blood" in the title for no reason. Also the central character is a younger guy (the kid), which in terms of casting would likely be more appealing to the money people as a draw to younger moviegoers.

Doing a remake of The Wild Bunch seems to make no sense with the exception of the fact that it is a "remake" which they prefer over doing an original story.
 
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dpippel

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I don't think there's any way you could do Blazing Saddles now. It was a (hilarious!) product of its time.
 

AshJW

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I saw the remake of The Magnificent Seven and liked it just OK. 3:10 To Yuma: a little better, True Grit a lot better than just OK.
But all three films were unnecessary to me (although I enjoyed them anyway to certain degrees).

With The Wild Bunch it won't be any different. The only thing that makes me interested is the director.
Well, we'll see won't we? ;)
 

Tino

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Anything with Mel Gibson attached I will see as I am a great fan of all his work.

Can’t wait to see his take in this.
 
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