A remake of a remake; John Sturges gave Akira Kurosawa‘s classic masterpiece The Seven Samurai the western treatment with The Magnificent Seven and now Hollywood is going back to the well again. Variety is reporting that MGM will begin development of an update to the film that brought together Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Charles Bronson and more.

And the studio already has a major star attached with Tom Cruise. While they are currently looking for writers, and although Cruise is passionate about making the film, I could easily see this attachment drop during the long road to production. Still, if they take it the right direction and get seven actors of highly quality to take on a genre that’s seen rejuvenation with films like True Grit, I’d be interested.

For those unfamiliar, the 1960 version followed seven rough-and-tumble gunslingers who were tasked with protecting a Mexican village from incoming terror. While I’m a fan of Cruise, especially his most recent action work in Ghost Protocol, he does seem a little too clean-cut to act as a western hero. We’re still a long ways off from the casting process though, so in the meantime check out a trailer for the original, as MGM gears up its remake slate with Carrie, RoboCop, Red Dawn and many more.