George Clooney in Seven Samurai remake!? WTF

Post by **Gaiseric** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 3:19 am

Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen is set to lead in the Hollywood remake of Japanese classic "The Seven Samurai", alongside George Clooney and Chinese starlet Zhang Ziyi, a film company said.

Yen met with Hollywood heavyweight Harvey Weinstein during Cannes film festival to discuss the remake of the 1954 action film directed by Japanese master Akira Kurosawa.

Weinstein has invited Yen to play one of the seven sword heroes in the film, according to Mandarin Films, which represents the actor.

"Donnie has met Harvey Weinstein in Cannes to discuss the project," a spokeswoman for Mandarin Films told AFP. "We don't know more details as it is still at an early stage."

She said Weinstein has also invited Clooney and Zhang to lead the film. It is not clear how much the project will cost.

Yen, 43-year-old actor, director and action choreographer, has starred in over 40 films, including "Blade II", "Seven Swords" and Zhang Yimou's "Hero".

The Seven Samurai tells a story of seven Samurai heroes' who battle with 40 bandits who try to control and constantly attack a small village.

Why cant hollywood come up with new ideas instead of butchering classics?

Post by **Buzkashi** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 3:25 am

Please no.

Website · Post by **BasouKazuma** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 3:42 am

First Samurai 7 now this. There's nothing to expand on. There's no way they could make the movie any better. It was perfect as is.

How about they just re-release it in theaters in it's original form?
Oh yea, cuz people are idiots.

Post by **SarahofBorg** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 4:08 am

source please? I'd like to spread the bad news.

Post by **Daedelus** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 4:20 am

They come up with new ideas all the time. No one ever wants to see them, so they have to do remakes. Nothing to see here, please move along...

Post by **Buzkashi** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 6:11 am

I guess it might make more people wanna go and watch the original. I know the new Omen movie is doing that

Post by **SarahofBorg** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 6:22 am

Found the source for myself

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_deta ... con_type=1

Post by **Fuji Nagase** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 6:53 am

why do people keep fucking messing with a classic. its great the way it is. first the anime, now this shit.. ::sigh::

Post by **Loeviz** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 9:21 am

Damn, this might suck even more then "The First Samurai" did.

Post by **Wandering_Mystic** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 9:49 am

You mean "The Last White Samurai" with tom cruise?

Post by **Eldo** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 9:53 am

They should have casted Samuel L Jackson or Wesley Snipes as the 'Last Samurai'. That would have made the movie better.

Post by **Libaax** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 12:09 pm

That would have made more sense than the Last Samuria being a white american soldier....

Hollywood nowadays dont have any new ideas so making remakes of asian movies are so hot right now.

I get annoyed when i heard about Internal Affairs remake but to touch a Kurasawa classic...

I will act as this movie dont exist when it comes out.

Post by **Femto** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 12:23 pm

Kurosawa is turning in his grave.

Post by **MournfulWoods** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 3:31 pm

Now the Last Samurai wasn't Tom Cruise's character but the other guy, I don't remember his name. The leader of the village. Tom cruise is just a witness to the death of this last samurai. He is NOT THE last samurai. He's just a witness to the fight between americanisation and old customs, samurai's ways. It's a bit like Dances with Wolves. Anyone hating this movie because Tom Cruise is not japanese obviously didn't understand the whole point of the movie. Unless they say in the movie that Tommy boy is the last samurai ? Anyway. I tought it was okay.

And a remake of Seven Samurai could turn out okay if it's well done. I don't know what George Clooney would be doing there though. I haven't seen the original so I can't say but, is there only japanese people in the original movie ? In any case, at least this remake will maybe turn american people to watch for the original.

Website · Post by **BasouKazuma** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 3:46 pm

I always assumed that Tom Cruise was 'the last samurai'. Just look at the posters for it. You don't see Katsumoto, you see Algren (Tom Cruise) dressed as a samurai with "The Last Samurai" in huge letters. Plus, I'm pretty sure Katsumoto and crew had accepted him as a fellow samurai by the end.

I guess it could be left up to interpretation. That is an interesting point of view though, since i never thought of that. Anyway, I really enjoyed The Last Samurai and think it was a great movie. Not sure why there's so much hate for it.

The original Shichinin no Samurai, was in black and white and had an all Japanese cast. So I guess an American remake could expose the movie to people who don't watch black and white films as well as people who are unaware of Japaneses cinema. The majority of the potential viewers probably fall into both categories. I might watch it out of curiosity but I'm not paying to see it unless they miraculously make a good film.

Post by **Libaax** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 4:36 pm

MournfulWoods wrote:Now the Last Samurai wasn't Tom Cruise's character but the other guy, I don't remember his name. The leader of the village. Tom cruise is just a witness to the death of this last samurai. He is NOT THE last samurai. He's just a witness to the fight between americanisation and old customs, samurai's ways. It's a bit like Dances with Wolves. Anyone hating this movie because Tom Cruise is not japanese obviously didn't understand the whole point of the movie. Unless they say in the movie that Tommy boy is the last samurai ? Anyway. I tought it was okay.

And a remake of Seven Samurai could turn out okay if it's well done. I don't know what George Clooney would be doing there though. I haven't seen the original so I can't say but, is there only japanese people in the original movie ? In any case, at least this remake will maybe turn american people to watch for the original.

It was a decent movie with decent sword fight.

But the movie wasnt about the last samurai cause it focused on way too much on Tom Cruise character.

It was suppose to be about the leader of the samurai clan or gang but it wasnt.

It could have been so much better if they didnt make Tom Cruise the "hero" and made the leader the "hero".

Post by **42ndEndOfTheWorld** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 8:00 pm

Daedelus wrote:They come up with new ideas all the time. No one ever wants to see them, so they have to do remakes. Nothing to see here, please move along...

Hey that's actually pretty unique opinion. And maybe you hit the nail. As they said in futurama: People always want to see same stuff. New stuff make them feel stupid, old stuff make them feel safe.

Post by **Femto** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 9:24 pm

Daedelus wrote:They come up with new ideas all the time. No one ever wants to see them, so they have to do remakes. Nothing to see here, please move along...

That's bullshit.

How many poorly received movies (critically or financially) with truly original concepts can you name?

If you can't name at least 20 from the past 2-3 years then your statement is not broad enough to be considered a rule rather than the exception.

The problem with remakes is not that they are remakes, it's that the movies themselves are poor in general. The Lord of the Rings movies are based on pre-existing material, but all three of them are great pieces of filmmaking. King Kong was a remake but, even with all it's flaws and everything, it was still a great popcorn movie.

People know how to appreciate new ideas and they can also appreciate a good old movie just as much.

Post by **Gaiseric** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 12:04 am

The Last Samurai is not necessarily singular, it is possible that it was intended for all the samurai of that time.

The Seven Samurai remake will be horrible. If you havent seen the original, you have no business talking about movies.

Remakes are fine if they make the movie as good or better than the original. That rarely happens.

The general movie going population is a bunch of morons. Thats why Hollywood will completely remake an asian film or do a horrible dub, instead of releasing the original. If you cant enjoy a movie that you have to read subtitles for, then you might as well shoot yourself in the face.

Post by **SarahofBorg** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 12:15 am

Remakes only work when the original can be improved upon, or if the same story works in a completely differant setting.
The Magnificent Seven worked well. And Samurai 7 isn't bad. But neither are anywhere near the quality of the original story, and they are far enough removed from the original story as to have some merit.
This is by far not the first Kurosawa movie to be remade in America in some way. There's already The Magnificent Seven, a remake of Seven Samurai. Then there's Firstfull of Dollars that's a remake of Yojimbo. There's other movies that are inspired by his films as well.
But none have actually attempted to replicate the same film, just the same basic story but with differant settings and characters. Simply because it should NOT be done.

Oh, and on a related note, there's e a Holywood Lone Wolf and Cub film that's been greenlighted, but it's not set to come out until 2008. Plenty of time to get cancelled.
It's going to be made by the same guy who did Requiem for a Dream and Pi.

Post by **Eldo** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 12:50 am

They should waste their money remaking the original trilogy of Star Wars instead? Why don't they do that? Because it's zomg a classic and zomg it's sacred.

I'm not up for Hollywood butchering everything I love. I'll probably watch it to see how bad it is, and just to bash it.

Last Samurai was a horrible movie. The only cool guy was Billy Connerly, and he got killed off early.

Post by **SarahofBorg** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 12:56 am

I honestly don't have a lot against The Last Samurai. I thought it was a pretty good movie, although kind of cliche and historically somewhat off.
There's no point in the film that said Tom Cruise's character became a Samurai.
I don't have much against Hollywood maknig Samurai movies. They couldn't screw it up much more than Japan already has. Sure, there's a lot of spectacular classics, but like any genre there's also a whole lot of crap. I mean, there's a movie where Zatoichi meets Yojimbo, which sounds like a kick-ass fan fiction but otherwise a really stupid premise.
I need to watch that one sometime.

Post by **Gaiseric** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 2:19 am

SarahofBorg wrote:Oh, and on a related note, there's e a Holywood Lone Wolf and Cub film that's been greenlighted, but it's not set to come out until 2008. Plenty of time to get cancelled.
It's going to be made by the same guy who did Requiem for a Dream and Pi.

Now, giving a classic story to a talented and somewhat eccentric director to put his own spin on it ,can be a good thing if its done right.

Website · Post by **BasouKazuma** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 2:34 am

I thought i saw all the Zatoichi movies ... i don't recall seeing that Yojimbo one though.

I gotta go and download that insanely huge torrent with all the movies in the series .... someday.

Post by **SarahofBorg** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 3:21 am

I started download it but gave up. Zatiochi Meets Yojimbo is number 20.