For a while now, Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh has been talking about his plans to write and direct a film called The Magnificent Eleven – a modern day soccer take on the story of The Magnificent Seven.
The film will see the cowboys replaced by an amateur football team, the Indians runs a Tandoori restaurant and the sportsmen are trying to protect them from the bandits, who are a group of menacing thugs run by a maniac called Blonde Bob. Described by Screen Daily as a ‘gritty UK comedy’, the producers of the film are currently at the Berlin Film Festival trying to find funding and distributors for the movie.
To try and lure people in, they’ve also announced a few cast members. These will include Sean Bean, Dougray Scott and Robert Vaughn. Vaughn, of course, is the last surviving cast member of the original Magnificent Seven, so its a nice touch to get him in there.
It’s not Welsh’s first film, as he also made last year’s darts movie, Good Arrows. In fact in recent years Welsh has shown more interest in writing and directing for the screen than he has in getting more books out, so The Magnificent Eleven may just be a taste of things to come.