Known for his films that have a layer of grime and grit to them, director David Ayer is making sure that his next feature takes that to the literal next step with its title. The director of the hit film Suicide Squad is in talks to write and direct a remake of The Dirty Dozen for Warner Bros., based on the 1967 war movie of the same name. Ayer won’t be alone in moving from the comic book world to this film however, as longtime X-Men writer/producer Simon Kinberg is attached to produce the new version.
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The Hollywood Reporter brought the news to light, revealing that the film will not re-use the World War II setting from the original film and instead be a contemporary take on the material. Ayer is no stranger to war movies and ensemble casts however, having previously directed the tank thriller Fury for Sony. It’s a bit of a coincidence, or perhaps fate, that Ayer would even be up for the part of remaking The Dirty Dozen, as the filmmaker previously compared his take on Suicide Squad to the Academy Award winning movie in an interview.
“I can say that it’s a Dirty Dozen with supervillains,” he teased ahead of production on the 2016 film. “Then I can ask the question, ‘Does a movie really need good guys?’”
Ayer will seemingly get to answer that question twice.
Released in 1967, The Dirty Dozen was a regular who’s who of Hollywood for the age, starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes, George Kennedy, Telly Savalas, and Donald Sutherland. In the film, Major John Reisman (Lee Marvin) is ordered to put together a team of ex-soldiers that have committed crimes, some so heinous that they are awaiting execution. These are the worst of the worst, which means they are perfect for a suicide mission behind enemy lines. If the felons succeed in their dangerous mission and survive they will have their sentences commuted. The film won the now defunct Best Sound Effects Oscar at The Academy Awards.
Since directing Suicide Squad, Ayer has gone on to helm Bright, the sword and sorcery/cops and robbers hybrid film for Netflix that starred Will Smith. Ayer was scheduled to follow this up with a sequel that he wrote and would direct, but Smith’s schedule has delayed the project to an undetermined start date. The director is currently in post-production on a new crime-thriller titled The Tax Collector, starring Shia LaBeouf.
