Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke and Peter Sarsgaard kick off TIFF 2016 with a dynamic remake of the 1960 western classic from director Antoine Fuqua.
The opening film is about seven gunslinging mercenaries protecting a small community from a rapacious robber baron.
As for his starring role as trickster Josh Faraday in the western flick, Pratt says it was something different than he had experienced before.
“I started watching Westerns when I was shooting in London about four or five years ago,” he told EW.com. “I really fell in love with Gary Cooper, and his stuff. That sucked me into the Westerns. Before, I never got engrossed in the story. I’d just dip in, and there were guys in horses in black and white.
The story follows robber Bartholomew Bogue (Sarsgaard) and his private army of henchmen who plan to exploit the local mining industry in the town of Rose Krick and execute a vicious takeover.
Bent on revenge, townswoman Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) offers bounty hunter Sam Chisolm (Washington) her life savings if he will help restore order and liberate her community from Bogue’s bloody grip.
Also in the mix is a card sharp and explosives enthusiast Josh Faraday (Pratt), a former Confederate Army sharpshooter (Hawke), a knife-throwing assassin (Lee Byung-hun), an outlaw (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), a warrior (Martin Sensmeier), and a wizened tracker (D’Onofrio).
“Faraday’s a bit of a fox. He’s a trickster. He is a gambler, drinker. He loves the ladies,” Pratt says of his character. “But he’s deadly in a firefight.”
The Magnificent Seven makes is premiere during The 2016 Toronto International Film Festival.
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