What do one American and two Chinese film celebrities have in common? According to Dark Horizons, all three will be involved in a remake of Japanese film classic, and one of the greatest films of all time, The Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai).
The celebrities in question are Donnnie Yen, Zhang Ziyi and George Clooney.
From Dark Horizons:
Yen met with Harvey Weinstein last week to discuss the remake of the 1954 action film directed by Japanese master Akira Kurosawa. According to a spokesperson for Mandarin Films, which represents the actor, "Donnie has met Harvey Weinstein in Cannes to discuss the project, we don't know more details as it is still at an early stage".
But why? The Seven Samurai has already inspired at least seven loose remakes over the past five decades (IMDB). Is this going to be loose remake number eight, or more of a direct remake, as we have usually been receiving? And why Chinese actors? Was Memoirs of a Geisha that successful? Japanese cinema has been very healthy for many years, and they have many wonderful actors to choose from.
I don't understand the world anymore, but I am sure this remake will earn lots of money for Harvey Weinstein.
George Clooney!? I love this man very much, and he has been making some excellent films over the past few years, but if he is going to be anything like Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai, some kind of Western savior for the "brutish Asian savages," then I will vomit.
Yes, I will vomit.
Of course it's still early to judge what they are thinking of, but I fear the worst.
