Director Antoine Fuqua recently spoke with Collider to reveal how he and the studios managed to gather such a diverse cast for the upcoming remake of "The Magnificent Seven." As it turns out, one of the first actors who were cast was Ethan Hawke, with Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt following.
According to Fuqua, he mentioned Washington's name when he was holding a meeting with the executives of Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer and confirmed that the film's cast had to be more diverse than the original. He was given the green light to approach Washington, who agreed to read the script. Afterwards, Washington agreed and signed on as the lead character.
Pratt was approached to take in the role formerly played by Steve McQueen. Fuqua stated that this was a quicker deal as Pratt revealed he was a big fan of Westerns. The director and the actor talked about the film and Pratt quickly signed on.
Fuqua also revealed that Hawke was the very first actor to sign on to the film as he was made aware of Fuqua's remake while Fuqua and Washington were working on "The Equalizer." The actor wanted to be in the film and the director stated that it was always his plan of putting Hawke and Washington back together. The actors previously worked with Fuqua on "Training Day."
In regards to the film's score, Fuqua stated that he was not aware James Horner had already written the music for him before he passed away. The director was concerned about getting a new composer to handle the film's score when he got a call that stated Horner left a gift for him, which turned out to be the completed music sheets for the movie.
Despite this, some of the music was still incomplete but Fuqua confirmed that he had some people close to Horner who were able to complete the late composer's work.
"Yeah, his guys did it," stated the director. "Simon and Joey and all of them. The guys had been working for him for years, they're all composers in their own right, but they did it. They came in and they gave it their all and they've been amazing. Really amazing."
"The Magnificent Seven" will be released in theaters on Sept. 23.
