Elysium’s Wagner Moura has joined the cast of Sony’s The Magnificent Seven remake. Over the past few months, the production has collected an impressive ensemble of actors—including Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Chris Pratt, Luke Grimes, and Vincent D’Onofrio—and Moura’s casting brings the project one step closer to the magic number. This is important, not only because the title demands seven protagonists, but also because if you have eight leads you’re in direct competition with Quentin Tarantino’s much-anticipated The Hateful Eight and if you have six leads you risk comparison with The Ridiculous 6, the Adam Sandler movie that likely will offend not only Native Americans, but anyone with good taste.
The Magnificent Seven follows the exploits of a disparate band of gunslingers hired by a woman (The Equalizer’s Haley Bennett) to protect her town from bandits. The script was written by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) and Nic Pizzolatto (True Detective), and the film will be directed by Antoine Fuqua, who helmed Training Day and other movies that aren’t Training Day.
Previously, there was some confusion about which actors would portray members of the titular gang, like when everyone assumed D’Onofrio would play the villain because he’s a great one on Daredevil and we still see his character from The Cell every time we close our eyes. (D’Onofrio disputed our nightmares on Twitter.) But, according to sources, Moura is definitely one of the main seven, so slap that man’s floating head on a poster. You can see Moura next as notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar in the Netflix series Narcos.
[via Empire]