Mel Gibson to rewrite and direct The Wild Bunch

Filming is expected to begin in Australia next spring on a new version of Peckinpah's classic 1969 western

Mel Gibson is set to direct a new version of Sam Peckinpah's 1969 western The Wild Bunch, Deadline reports.

Peckinpah's film, set in 1913 on the Mexico-United States border, follows a gang of aging outlaws struggling to adapt to the oncoming of the industrial age. The film starred Wiliam Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O’Brien, Warren Oates, Jaime Sanchez and Ben Johnson.

Although its violence was controversial at the time, The Wild Bunch is now appreciated as a milestone in the Western genre, thanks to Peckinpah's revolutionary approach to editing, cutting together footage from cameras with different frames per second.

Warner Bros has attempted several remakes of the film in the past, though this is the closest the studio has gotten so far, with filming expected to begin in Australia next spring. Gibson is writing the script with Bryan Bagby, with Gibson acting as executive producer.

Gibson is also set to direct Destroyer, starring Mark Wahlberg, which centres on the Battle of Okinawa in April, 1945.

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