Tag: The Dirty Dozen

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‘The Dirty Dozen’: David Ayer Still “Trying To Find The Right Angle” For His Remake Of The 1960’s WWII Action Film

Back in 2019, it was first reported by Deadline that director David Ayer would be taking a shot at remaking the classic WWII action film “The Dirty Dozen.” A seemingly solid pairing given that the filmmaker had recently worked with Brad Pitt on the WWII thriller “Fury,” which focuses on a group of tank operators. While promoting his new Jason Statham-led actioner, “The Beekeeper,” Ayer gave Variety a brief update on the status of the project during a recent interview. Stating that the remake is still in active development but is having some trouble finding a good angle for it.

“They’ve been on the page a minute. I’m just trying to figure out where I’m going right now. ‘Dozen’ has been in development for a bit, and it’s just trying to find the right angle for that one.”

“It’s nerve-wracking, to be honest. I have so much respect for cinematic history, and these are all projects that I grew up loving before being a filmmaker. I think that’s always the challenge of these things: How do you modernize something and build it out for a modern audience, while at the same time keeping that DNA? You see how different filmmakers deal with the same problems in different ways.“

If you’re not familiar with the 1967 movie it focuses on a “suicide squad” if you will that sees Lee Marvin‘s character Major John Reisman recruit twelve condemned U.S. military prisoners during the Second World War and the group is offered the chance to avoid being hanged in jail for their crimes if they agree to volunteer for a deadly mission behind enemy lines to take out a key Nazi position and officers by any means necessary before the landing on D-Day. Marvin led the ensemble that featured Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, John Cassavetes, Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown, George Kennedy, and a baby-faced Donald Sutherland.

Maj. Reisman's Field Uniform in The Dirty Dozen » BAMF Style

The original directed by Robert Aldrich would go on to spawn three sequels with “The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission,” “The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission,” and “The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission.” Of course, it was the direct inspiration for things like the DC Comics team, “The Suicide Squad,” which has had two feature film installments with Ayer directing the first one and James Gunn handling the follow-up.

At one time, producer Joel Silver and director Guy Ritchie had been putting together their version of “The Dirty Dozen” at Warner Bros. (As well as a “Sgt. Rock” movie based on the DC hero) around the time of their success with “Sherlock Holmes.” However, once Quentin Tarantino announced he was moving forward with his big commando movie “Inglourious Basterds” (Another project highly influenced by “Dozen”) that would star Pitt the studio pumped the breaks and it never fully recovered as both exited the remake. Ritchie has pivoted back to the idea of making a WWII commando film as “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” stars Henry Cavill and “Reacher” breakout Alan Ritchson in key roles.

“The Beekeeper” is now playing in theaters.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

Guy Ritchie To Tackle WWII With Black Ops Flick ‘Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’ For Paramount

Deadline reports that Guy Ritchie had been hired by Paramount Pictures to write and direct a WWII movie, titled Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, based on a novel by Damien Lewis that focused on the formation of the first British black ops unit.

Previous drafts were penned by Arash Amel, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson.

When France fell to the Nazis in 1940, Churchill declared that Britain would resist the advance of the German army–alone if necessary. Churchill commanded the Special Operations Executive to secretly develop of a very special kind of military unit that would operate on their own initiative deep behind enemy lines. The units would be licensed to kill, fully deniable by the British government, and a ruthless force to meet the advancing Germans. The very first of these “butcher-and-bolt” units–the innocuously named Maid Honour Force–was led by Gus March-Phillipps, a wild British eccentric of high birth, and an aristocratic, handsome, and bloodthirsty young Danish warrior, Anders Lassen. Amped up on amphetamines, these assorted renegades and sociopaths undertook the very first of Churchill’s special operations–a top-secret, high-stakes mission to seize Nazi shipping in the far-distant port of Fernando Po, in West Africa.

It’ll be interesting to see if he ends up casting familiar actors such as Charlie Hunnam and Jason Statham.

Guy is a busy bee as he finished a thriller titled Wrath of Man that has yet to come out and is currently in production on his new spy movie formerly known as Five Eyes, both films starring Jason Statham. He had been announced to make an Aladdin sequel for Disney but that doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon given all these projects he keeps attaching himself to.

At one time, Ritchie had been developing a remake of The Dirty Dozen but things eventually fell apart when Quentin Tarantino made his own WWII film with fighting men behind enemy lines with the Brad Pitt flick Inglourious Basterds. A project that was greatly inspired by movies like The Dirty Dozen.

When this war project will begin shooting is a little unclear but Guy has been moving quickly between the productions of Aladdin, The Gentlemen, Wrath of Man, and now with “Five Eyes.” I wouldn’t be shocked if this ended up being his next film to shoot.

SOURCE: DEADLINE