What an eventful day this has been for the Scott brothers. The older one, Ridley, got everyone’s attention with the announcement that he’s returning to the world of Blade Runner — what that actually means still isn’t clear, but it’s still a big reveal. Tony is now making the headlines with the news that he’ll be doing a remake and a biopic in the near future, those being The Wild Bunch and Hells Angels.

The first of these is a much bigger deal; it’s been reported that Warner Bros. was interested in a remake of Sam Peckinpah‘s classic western since January, but Scott is one of the last people that I — or most people — would imagine getting behind the camera for it. His hyperkinetic, meth addict style doesn’t even come close to jibing with the somewhat slower film that has become a classic over the past 40 years. It only says that he’s in talks for the remake, but he seems very enthusiastic about taking it on, so I don’t doubt that he’ll be directing, while Brian Helgeland is scripting.

As for Hells Angels, it’s being indicated that the story of Sonny Barger — leader of the titular, infamous motorcycle gang — will be next for the Unstoppable director, and he wants Jeff Bridges in the lead. The main obstacle that he’s facing here is the busy schedule that the actor has, which includes R.I.P.D. and The Seventh Son. Because of this, him agreeing to star still means that shooting wouldn’t begin until next spring at the earliest.

There’s actually some promise here; the script is by The Lookout‘s Scott Frank, working from a draft that was done by Syriana and Traffic screenwriter Stephen Gaghan. Its story focuses on a war between the Hells Angels and the Mongols in 2001 (called the River Run Riot), and how a friendship between Barger and a mechanic drifter with a skill for motorcycles was born out of this. The aforementioned style that Scott employs in much of his work could fit with the story, seeing as it arguably matches the chaos that comes with people of this sort. Now, I like almost none of his films, so when I say that it “could work well” here, I mean that it could fit, not that I would enjoy it.

He has a few other things in the pipeline at the moment, most notably his Top Gun sequel, but Hells Angels and The Wild Bunch could happen before that, and the former almost certainly will. I honestly don’t know if that can be taken as a good or bad thing, but Tony Scott is a busy man for the next few years.

Do you think that Tony Scott is the right man for the Wild Bunch remake? Would you want to see him direct a Hells Angels movie that stars Jeff Bridges?

Source: Deadline