I had to make sure no one spiked my coffee this morning when I read that the Weinsteins want to cast George Clooney in a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai.
I’m going to give you a moment to let that sink in.
Apparently the Brothers W are hot to remake the film, adding CGI-assisted fight scenes (I don’t know how true any of this is – it could very well be a plotline from season 3 of Entourage. But the great thing about Hollywood is that this could be either outrageous satire or complete reality – there’s no way to tell the two apart!), and they were at the Cannes Film Festival courting Donnie Yen to come aboard their projected 100 million dollar project.
As to where the Clooney comes in, I couldn’t tell you. But the idea of having him in the film (as the lead samurai, Kambei, some Hong Kong media is speculating) has come up, along with the rumor that Zhang Ziyi might be cast. Would Clooney be wearing makeup, or would he be playing the grandson of Richard Chamberlain’s Blackthorn or something? Who knows. Who cares? This story, while most likely false, will surely serve to get lots of people riled up and maybe even convince a couple of youngsters to give the original a shot.
I just hope that this doesn’t interfere with Clooney’s plans to star in a remake of Roots. I think his Kunta Kinte would be spectacular.