Talks of a remake of the classic war drama The Dirty Dozen have swept through Hollywood for over a decade and now it appears it’s finally set to get back on track as Warner Bros. has entered talks with Suicide Squad‘s David Ayer to write and direct the project, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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The original film, released in 1967, followed army Major General Sam Woren (Ernest Borgnine) as he is tasked with gathering a group of hardened Army convicts criminals and training them to take on a mission to take out Nazi officials in a heavily guarded manor in exchange for their freedom. In addition to Borgnine, the film featured an ensemble cast that included Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas and Donald Sutherland, among more.
Ayer, who explored the World War II genre in the well-received Fury, previously cited Dozen as one of his primary points of inspiration while developing the DC Extended Universe spinoff Suicide Squad, which was a large financial success for the studio, but received generally poor reviews from critics and mixed reviews from audiences. He was previously set to helm a standalone sequel and Gotham City Sirens spinoff, but James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) replaced him on the former while the latter has been delayed indefinitely in favor of Birds of Prey.
Sources do report that despite Ayer’s familiarity with the genre, the studio and filmmaker are looking to update Dozen for a modern audience and set it in contemporary times versus the WWII setting of the original
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Simon Kinberg, the creative force behind much of Fox’s X-Men franchise and producer of Murder on the Orient Express, has also signed on to produce the remake.
(Photo by Mike Marsland/WireImage via Getty Images)
