Hollywood Is Remaking Clint Eastwood Classic ‘A Fistful of Dollars’: Report

A movie that launched a legendary Hollywood career and effectively popularized the spaghetti Western genre is looking to make a comeback.

The seminal 1960s film “A Fistful of Dollars,” which starred the inimitable Clint Eastwood, will be looking to capture the attention of a new generation (perhaps quite literally) of film fans through a forthcoming remake.

As reported Tuesday by Deadline, the classic Western will be getting a modernized update through a conglomerate of European Hollywood veterans.

Euro Gang Entertainment will helm the new film with support from Italy-based Jolly Film, which helped distribute the ’60s version.

(Fun fact: “A Fistful of Dollars” came out in Italy in 1964, before debuting for American audiences in 1967.)

Trending:

Deadly Heatwave Likely Ends 4-Month-Old Baby’s Life During Tragic 4th of July Trip – ‘We Are So Heartbroken’

“It’s still early in the process so production details are under wraps for now,” Deadline reported.

Perhaps in a slightly worrying sign, the outlet also speculated that this film should be in English, while also noting that very little information is otherwise available — including whether the 94-year-old Eastwood will be involved in any way.

“This would most likely be English-language but that hasn’t been confirmed by the team and a writer, start date and cast have yet to be revealed,” Deadline noted.

There also does not appear to be anything resembling a release window for the remake.

Are you a fan of Westerns?

Given the aforementioned lack of knowledge, the quality and reception of this new “A Fistful of Dollars” will certainly be up for debate and critical analysis.

The quality and reception of the ’60s “A Fistful of Dollars” is up for no such debate anymore: It is a lauded film, period.

Starring a young and relatively unknown Eastwood as the “Man with No Name” (unofficially tagged as “Joe” in the end credits), a wandering gunman stumbles into a town along the U.S.-Mexico border.

There, the gunman opts to play two warring factions — whose actions are threatening to ruin the town — against each other.

An ensuing tale of heroism, honor and ludicrously accurate marksmanship plays out, before (mild spoiler for a film that came out six decades ago) the unnamed gunman successfully wanders off into the sunset with his mission very much accomplished.

Related:

Award-Winning Hollywood Legend Behind ‘Titanic’ and ‘Avatar’ Dead at 63

The film not only put Eastwood on the map as a bona fide movie star but also re-energized the Western genre as a sort of Euro-Western product from Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone.

“A Fistful of Dollars” was met with some derision and poor reviews when it debuted in America.

The New York Times, for instance, blasted the film in 1967 for being “egregiously synthetic” and called out Eastwood as a “morbid, amusing, campy fraud.”

Many other critics echoed that sentiment — but it didn’t matter.

The film developed a cult following that helped launch a trilogy of movies featuring Eastwood’s “Man with No Name” with the highly lauded “For a Few Dollars More” and, perhaps Eastwood’s most famous film, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”

The original “A Fistful of Dollars” was not without controversy, however.

As chronicled by The Film Foundation, Leone was sued by famed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa and the Japanese studio that produced “Yojimbo” — a 1961 samurai film where a wandering ronin also stumbles upon a town torn asunder by rival gangs.

Given some of the remarkably similar plot points between the two films, the parties eventually settled on an agreement that saw Kurosawa get 15 percent of all box office earnings from “A Fistful of Dollars.”

Kurosawa reportedly made more money from that legal settlement than the entire theatrical run of “Yojimbo.”


A Note from Our Deputy Managing Editor:

 

I heard a chilling comment the other day: “We don’t even know if an election will be held in 2024.” 

 

That wasn’t said by a conspiracy theorist or a doomsday prophet. No, former U.S. national security advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said that to the founder of The Western Journal, Floyd Brown.

 

Gen. Flynn’s warning means that the 2024 election is the most important election for every single living American. If we lose this one to the wealthy elites who hate us, hate God, and hate what America stands for, we can only assume that 248 years of American history and the values we hold dear to our hearts may soon vanish.

 

The end game is here, and as Benjamin Franklin said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

 

All of this means that without you, it’s over. We have the platform, the journalists, and the experience to fight back hard, but Big Tech is strangling us through advertising blacklists, shadow bans, and algorithms. Did you know that we’ve been blacklisted by 90% of advertisers? Without direct support from you, our readers, we can’t continue the fight.

 

Can we count on your support? It may not seem like much, but a Western Journal Membership can make all the difference in the world because when you support us directly, you cut Big Tech out of the picture. They lose control. 

 

A monthly Western Journal Membership costs less than one coffee and breakfast sandwich each month, and it gets you access to ALL of our content — news, commentary, and premium articles. You’ll experience a radically reduced number of ads, and most importantly you will be vitally supporting the fight for America’s soul in 2024.

 

We are literally counting on you because without our members, The Western Journal would cease to exist. Will you join us in the fight? 

 

Sincerely,

Josh Manning

Deputy Managing Editor

The Western Journal

Bryan Chai has written news and sports for The Western Journal for more than five years and has produced more than 1,300 stories. He specializes in the NBA and NFL as well as politics.

Bryan Chai has written news and sports for The Western Journal for more than five years and has produced more than 1,300 stories. He specializes in the NBA and NFL as well as politics. He graduated with a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona. He is an avid fan of sports, video games, politics and debate.

Birthplace

Hawaii

Education

Class of 2010 University of Arizona. BEAR DOWN.

Location

Phoenix, Arizona

Languages Spoken

English, Korean

Topics of Expertise

Sports, Entertainment, Science/Tech

Source link