Hollywood is continuing the trend of coming up with movie titles using the formula: Definite Article + Adjective + Cardinal Number. This year we are already getting The Fantastic Four and The Hateful Eight. There’s also The Ridiculous Six, although we’re all hopeful that Adam Sandler will have a Potlatch and just give that away, or that the movie will be abducted by the Comanche and never seen again. The remake of The Magnificent Seven has almost done the math, with a cast of five including Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Luke Grimes, Chris Pratt and Vincent D’Onofrio.
Make that six: Brazilian actor Wagner Moura has joined the cast. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Moura’s casting is a canny business move by MGM. “In a nod to the growing importance of the international box office, Moura’s casting helps MGM ensure a strong audience presence in South America, where the actor has a sizable fan base.” In Brazil the film will be sold as O Magnífico Sete.* If the studio wants an even bigger international reach, they should probably look for an Asian star to round out the cast: how about Japanese actor Ken Watanabe? After all, he’s already played a samurai, and as any film snob will happily tell you, the original Magnificent Seven is in fact a remake of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai.
*Thanks, Google Translate!
