Just when you thought the never-ending cycle of reboots and remakes was over for good, Prime Video has announced that True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto has signed on to write and executive produce a TV show based on The Magnificent Seven.
What makes it even more infuriating is that Deadline reveals he was originally in talks create an entirely original concept for a Western series at the streamer’s behest, only for the seed to evolve into what’s basically the reboot of a remake of a remake, one of which already ended up getting three sequels and a TV show.
If you’ve seen Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, John Sturges’ classic Western, or Antoine Fuqua’s recent blockbuster, then you’ll have a pretty good idea of what the story will entail. There will be seven main characters, and you can bet your ass they’re going to be magnificent, especially with a long-form episodic format to play with.
Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon is also derived from Kurosawa’s all-time great samurai epic and releases on Netflix this year, making one of the most influential films ever made the gift that keeps on giving for on-demand platforms that can’t seem to come up with any good ideas of their own.
Does the world really need yet another dusting off and rehashing of The Magnificent Seven? Not a chance, it would be preposterous to even suggest such a thing, but now that it owns the rights to the MGM back catalog, we can expect it to be merely the first drop in an ocean of repurposed IP.