Mel Gibson says he thought The Wild Bunch remake ‘Was a bad idea at first’
Last month, word broke that Mel Gibson is slated to co-write and direct The Wild Bunch, a remake of the classic 1969 Western. While promoting his newest film, Dragged Across Concrete, Gibson spoke about his decision to follow director Sam Peckinpah’s Wild Bunch with his own version. He even admitted that he initially thought it was a bad idea.
“I thought it was a bad idea at first,” said Gibson while speaking to 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. 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. “
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Gibson also said that he felt the connection to Peckinpah even in his current movie, which features Gibson and Vince Vaughn as corrupt cops planning their own score.
“[Dragged Across Concrete] is related, it’s in that Peckinpah realm,” related Gibson. “I wanted to strip away a lot of stuff, all my bad mannerisms and bad habits and just channel one of my heroes, the great Lee Marvin. The character is a cynical guy and tried to reflect what was there on the page. In the script it doesn’t refer to my character by his name — it doesn’t call him Ridgeman — it calls him the ‘the grim fellow.’ That stuck with me. So I stayed as grim as possible.”
There isn’t a currently announced release date for either Dragged Across Concrete or the remake of The Wild Bunch. Are you excited to see either of these Mel Gibson films? Let us know in the comment section below!
