Director Antoine Fuqua is getting the band back together again. Almost fifteen years after directing the gritty drama, Training Day, Fuqua has reunited the film’s stars, Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke for the upcoming remake, The Magnificent Seven.
Sources say the Oscar-nominated Hawke is in final negotiations to join Washington in MGM’s Magnificent Seven remake with Fuqua directing.
The 1960 original, itself a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, starred Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen. It centered on seven gunslingers who protect an oppressed Mexican village from a group of outlaws.
Hawke is coming off his Oscar-nominated role in Boyhood and has several upcoming projects that include Andrew Niccol’s Good Kill and the documentary he directed, Seymour: An Introduction.
MGM is hoping the pairing of Hawke with Washington leads to the same success the two saw on crime drama Training Day, which over-performed at the box office and led to both men receiving Oscar nominations, with Washington eventually taking home the prize.
The script was most recently reworked by John Lee Hancock, with True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto writing the previous draft.
Chris Pratt and Haley Bennett are also on board to star.