Rod Lurie’s remake of Sam Peckinpah’s seminal Straw Dogs finally has a cast ready for some good ol’ fashioned American violence and rape!
Variety announced today that James Woods, Dominic Purcell (Prison Break) and Willa Holland (Legion) have all joined the cast, but doesn’t reveal what roles they are playing. They’ve got the leads set already, anyway!
James Marsden, yes, Cyclops himself, will be playing the character originally made famous by Dustin Hoffman. Kate Bosworth (Superman Returns) will play his wife (the Susan George role) and Alexander Skarsgard (True Blood) will be playing her old home-town boyfriend, as played by Del Henney in the original.
The original is arguably Peckinpah’s greatest and most controversial film, and it’s doubtful that Lurie can make anything nearly as powerful. But it’s not a bad idea for a remake, as the story is one that will certainly resonate with the vigilante in everyone. But can the themes and brutality of the film still shock audiences today, or will they have to go even farther?
The plot for the remake is roughly the same: a book smart husband following his wife to live in her hick hometown where trouble ensues with the locals (to put it incredibly lightly)- but a few points have been changed. The biggest is the location, which has been changed from Cornwall, England to Mississipi, possibly a fair trade. Also, Marsden’s a hollywood screenwriter instead of a mathematician, two jobs that are sure to annoy rednecks. But the most interesting thing to see will be how closely they stick to the events of the original…
Filming just started yesterday, so expect Straw Dogs to hit sometime in 2010.