Tony Scott talks ‘The Warriors’ remake

News | Film News | by Mark Pollard

Huzzah! Another genre film remake is coming our way courtesy of director Tony Scott, the guy who is about to deliver an entirely unnecessary remake of classic 1970s crime thriller, THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE. (On a side note, do yourself a favor and rent Joseph Sargent’s original 1974 film, starring Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw, before wallowing into the remake opening June 12th.) The film I am referring to is a remake of Walter Hill’s cult street gang classic THE WARRIORS (1979). Rotten Tomatoes recently sat down with Scott to discuss this upcoming project.

“I’m not doing a straight remake,” Scott insisted. “I love the original WARRIORS and I’m using the same basic story. It’s really still 10 guys stuck at point B and they need to get back to point A. But I’m going to set it in Los Angeles and it’s going to be a kind of study of gang culture in LA today.”

Scott says he plans to play up the vertical nature of how Los Angeles is laid out opposed to the horizontal nature of New York with its many skyscrapers. In the original film, the setting of tightly packed high-rises and the subway gave much of the film a closed-in look. Scott says he wants to get 100,000 real gang members standing on the Vincent Thomas Bridge for one shot, presumably to replicate the gang meeting that takes place at the beginning of the 1979 film.

Scott has been meeting with representatives of the area gangs, who so far have expressed interest in being in the film since, according to the director, they’re all fans of THE WARRIORS.

Tony Scott seems to be on a mission to repackage old film and TV properties. The TOP GUN helmer has already produced a made-for-TV remake of the sci-fi classic THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN and has further plans to produce a feature-film adaptation of THE A-TEAM and an ALIEN prequel.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Tags: The Warriors (2010), upcoming

barry

it aint in 10 guys its nine guys - cleon, ajax, swan, cowboy, cochise, snow, rembrant, fox, and vermin. everyone knows that. and i am 13 years old.

ranger1234

Hey, There are no rules, so what if a movie comes out resembling The Warriors...It's entertainment. Either go to the movie or don't...lol
AS far as "real" gangs meeting for cameo, great. It's real and whatever anyone thinks it is a part of our culture.

tikkiexx

im actually interested to see how this turns out. id forget all about this remake. gangs are a touchy subject tho. if you go with real gangs people will say youre promoting the lifestyle, if you use fake gangs theyll say its cheesy and not realistic. i kind of wish he had set it in a city more similar to New York. Chicago would have been perfect, plus theyre gangs are just as bad as L.A.s. and sorry Alex Delarge but please explain why its a piece of trash because of Hip Hop and Cholos. what do you want to see? unfortunately blacks and latinos are the main people gang banging and being victims of gang violence. its unavoidable. and how are they going to deal with guns in the movie? this movie could turn out really bad or kind of ok. i cant see it actually being any good. i just hope noone gets hurt while theyre filming it. getting all those gangs together in one place seems like a BAD idea, especially considering that Latino gangs and Black gangs have been in an all out race war the last few years. they pretty much kill each other on sight. not good.

Alex DeLarge

What a SHAME... This will be turned in to a Hip-Hop/Cholo Gangsta piece of trash, we already have a lot of that $hit!!..Bastards..

frank

This is BULLSH$%!!!! If a remake has to be done keep it from The Bronx to Coney Island like the original! No way will this have the same feel as the classic! Leave it alone!!!!!

Anonymous

From what I've heard, the Scott remake of Pelham's actually good. But The Warriors can't be done in L.A., since you cannot just simply run away from gangs on foot here. So I imagine the new one could end up being as horrible as Andersuck's Death Race. But hey, maybe he can come up with creative escapes.

monk sante

Please! The original is a classic! WTF is wrong with these Hollywood people these days are they this stupid? Can't they come up with new material? Remake this and remake that, please! Give it a rest!

Mark Pollard

@John - That's an excellent point you've made. Does Tony Scott's attempt to bring all these gang members into his gang movie legitimize or promote gang activity? The original film created controversy for stirring up New York gang fervor which led to violence in theaters. One thing that kept the original film in check was Hill's insistence at keeping the gang depictions stylized. I'm hoping that Scott follows a similar approach. Glorifying real gang life would not be socially responsible.

Now if Scott could get these real gang members to play dress up in gaudy, matching uniforms, face paint or wigs, that would be terrific.

John

100,000 REAL gang members on one bridge......um good luck with that ending well Tony. Now I'm no genius, but um maybe just maybe if you actually get that many real gang members in one spot you should arrest them. Just an idea, might save a few lives. Nah nevermind putting them in a movie is way better, what do I know.