Wagner Moura Adds To Fuqua's THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

For all the bruhaha from some critics over director Neill Blomkamp's 2013 sci-fi epic, Elysium, at best, it was a film I ultimately enjoyed. It especially landed actor Wagner Moura on my radar while I haven't yet seen his previous films, Elite Squad and Elite Squad 2 - they're on my watchlist, so all things in good time.

Meanwhile, Moura's screen presence is defintely something I look forward to, particularly with director Antoine Fuqua's upcoming remake, The Magnificent Seven. The film itself is one that's come up on occasion in the last few years, interestingly enough with the previously-mentioned and hopeful involvement of Martin Scorsese and action duo Donnie Yen and Yuen Woo-Ping for a remake of Seven Samurai, the 1954 Kurosawa Akira classic on which helmer John Sturges's 1960 western in question was based. For now though, it's Sturges's movie in the headlines and Training Day trio, stars Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke and director Antoine Fuqua tapped to work on the film along with The Equalizer co-star, actress Haley Bennett and actors Chris Pratt and (hopefully) Marvel's Daredevil co-star, actor Vincent D'onofrio, and now with Moura joining in.

The new script from scribes John Lee Hancock and Nic Pizzolatto will center on Bennett's role as a grieving widow who hires a disparate group of bounty hunter to avenge her husband's death at the hands of a rutheless gold-mining baron, offering them enough money to split seven ways to get the job done. Sony has since planted a flag for the film's release date of January 13, 2017 on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.

In the meantime, Moura can be seen this August in Netflix's upcoming series, Narcos, while Fuqua settles in this July with upcoming boxing drama, Southpaw, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, in addition to (hopefully being the one to facilitate) a sequel to his September 2014 hit, The Equalizer, which Variety now reports has officially been greenlit by Sony as of this week for Washington to return to star.

Lots of work ahead. Keep your eyes peeled!

H/T: THR