Just a couple weeks ago, it was announced the Mel Gibson, who has been attempting to resurrect his career in recent years after a rocky early-2000s, is set to co-write and direct a remake of the Sam Peckinpah classic Western “The Wild Bunch.” When the news hit, many people were upset, but mostly, people were confused. Why remake an already-classic film? Well, apparently Gibson thought the same thing.
In a Q&A after a recent screening of the upcoming “Dragged Across Concrete,” from director S. Craig Zahler, Gibson explained his initial reluctance to tackle the project and his reasons for eventually coming around to the idea.
“I thought it was a bad idea at first,” Gibson said (via Deadline). “Why make ‘The Wild Bunch’ again? Who would do that? I thought about it and I thought about it some more, and then I thought of a way [into the story]. A way to tell the story. So, I’ve been sitting in a room with a writer and it’s been a blast. So, it started as a bad idea, but it’s heading toward something that could be special. It’s about last chances and guys with lives of accrued violence. … Those guys [in the original film]? They laugh a lot, but it isn’t funny. “
If you look at the social media reactions to the news of the ‘Wild Bunch’ remake, as mentioned above, many people were using “bad idea” to describe the film project. So, while Gibson was perhaps being a bit modest and admitting what’s being said online, it does sound like the filmmaker has something to say with his new version of the project. It’s just a matter of finding out if anyone is willing to listen.
There’s no release date set for “The Wild Bunch” remake, and with Gibson’s very busy schedule (he has multiple films in the pipeline), it could be a while before audiences see what the filmmaker does with Peckinpah’s Western.