Filmmaker Antoine Fuqua, about to hit cinemas with the third film in his “The Equalizer” franchise, has revealed that there are two of his own movies which he would release director’s cuts for – and they’re not the ones you may think.
Fuqua really broke through with 2001’s acclaimed “Training Day” and has since steadily been working across a number of genres with period epic “King Arthur,” action-thriller “Olympus Has Fallen,” boxing drama “Southpaw,” slavery drama “Emancipation” and more.
Talking with Indiewire to promote “The Equalizer 3,” he was asked about a longer cut existing of his 2016 western “The Magnificent Seven,” a remake of the iconic 1960 western ensemble which itself was a remake of Kurosawa’s even more legendary “Seven Samurai”.
Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Manuel-Garcia Rulfo and Vincent D’Onofrio were amongst the stars of the film, and Fuqua revealed Hawke is one of the very few who has seen Fuqua’s original version of the movie:
“[Ethan Hawke] saw the very first [cut]. I don’t know where it is now though, with MGM, I’d have to try to get it. I would like to recut it myself, but I don’t know who would pay for it. I’d have to pay for that, somewhere down the line, I might try. But yeah, he saw the very first cut, which I thought was better. You are dealing with the studio and timing and theaters, but you got a business is business. But I wish that one was the version [that was released].”
Asked if there were any other films he similarly wished to take another crack at, he cited his 2003 action thriller “Tears of the Sun” starring Bruce Willis and Monica Bellucci:
“It had much more to it. It was cut down quite a bit. It became a little more movie star-driven, and that wasn’t the intention. It was more about the people and the events, and then it became obviously shifted. But Bruce Willis is an amazing movie star, and I get it.
Both films ended up bombing, Fuqua’s “The Magnificent Seven” took in $160 million worldwide from a $90-107 million budget and mixed reviews whilst “Tears of the Sun” fared even worse with $86 million from a $100 million budget and had bad reviews.
Meanwhile “The Equalizer 3” is on track to kick off $35 million over the Labor Day holiday opening weekend.
