Deadline has the exclusive that "Mel Gibson has been set by Warner Bros to direct "The Wild Bunch," a new version of the 1969 Sam Peckinpah-directed classic Western. Gibson is writing the script with Bryan Bagby. Gibson will be executive producer."
"Bloody Mel" is at it again. We all know that he never skimps out on the on-screen violence with his films as director ("Braveheart," "Passion of the Christ," "Apocalypto" and "Hacksaw Ridge"), having created some of the most violent imagery to date in modern cinema. He seems to revel in staging be-headings and grisly deaths. A madman indeed.
It has been ten years since Gibson gave us "Apocalytpo," a bloody, surreal, but cinematically brilliant dissection of the Mayan's final days. "Hacksaw Ridge" was his fifth movie as a director. It was also the film that official-ized his comeback in Hollywood with a bunch of Oscar noms, including Best Picture and Director.
What was he going to follow-up "Hacksaw Ridge" with? Well, how about a remake of "The Wild Bunch," which was originally directed by Sam Peckinpah back in 1968. Peckinpah is a sort of heir to Gibson's brand of on-screen brutality, you can see it in every frame of his artfully sadistic films. It's a dream-team waiting to happen. I say, bring it on.