Though his only claims to fame writing for the small screen are a couple episodes of The Killing and the HBO drama, True Detective with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, Nic Pizzolatto has been tapped to pen the remake of MGM’s The Magnificent Seven.  Tom Cruise is set to star in the picture and, now that a writer has been secured, the project should start to show more signs of progress.  The Magnificent Seven will still have to cast six gunslingers in addition to Cruise, as well as a group of marauding bandits.  Hit the jump for more.

Though it seemed for a minute there that Tom Cruise wasn’t going to come back from Oprahgate (aka Couchgate, aka The Day Tom Went Crazy), the actor is doing a damn fine job of lining up some high profile pictures as of late.  He plays a rock star in this summer’s musical Rock of Ages, he recently wrapped the Jack Reacher adaptation One Shot, he’s currently filming Joseph Kosinski’s sci-fi epic Oblivion, he’s set to follow that up with Doug Liman’s sci-fi actioner All You Need Is Kill and may be teaming with Robert Downey Jr. for El Presidente.

Cruise also has a few sequels/remakes on the horizon as he’s attached to star in a reboot of Van Helsing, he’s being courted to return for Top Gun 2, and Clint Eastwood wants him to star in a redo of A Star Is Born.  The actor is adding another remake to the pile, but this time he’s taking on a bona fide classic: The Magnificent Seven.  Hit the jump for more.

Last May we reported that Irvine Welsh, author of the novel Trainspotting, would be writing and directing a British feature called The Magnificent Eleven. But hey! May was a lifetime ago so we figured we should remind you! In case that title didn’t give it away, the film is a modern-day take on the classic American western The Magnificent Seven, itself an homage to the Japanese classic The Seven Samurai. Welsh’s interpretation turns the cowboys into British footballers and the Mexican setting into a Tandoori take-out joint. Screen Daily is also reporting that Sean Bean and Dougray Scott will star in Eleven alongside Robert Vaughan – the last surviving member of the original Magnificent Seven. This casting scoop isn’t exactly breaking news but it may help Stealth Media Group as they shop the feature around the 60^th annual Berlin Film Festival this week.

Irvine Welsh – the legendary author of “Trainspotting” or the not-so legendary author of “Porno” (depending on your perspective) – is apparently a fan of the film “The Magnificent Seven”.  I realize this does not exactly make the man a trendsetter, but go with me on this one.  Welsh will be adapting and directing “The Magnificent Eleven”, an homage to John Sturges’ 1960 classic.  And by ‘homage’ I mean that the film reinterpret the whole western vibe using Britain’s version of the cowboy – the footballer.

According to Empire “The Magnificent Eleven” will be a “sporty” version of the tale of a Mexican village and the seven gunfighters hired to protect it.  In Welsh’s version the gunfighters will become an amateur football (aka “soccer”) team and the Mexican village will become the team’s favorite Tandoori restaurant.  I know, it doesn’t sound too promising at this stage, but I’m guessing that a lot of folks couldn’t see the big picture when Sturges took Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” from feudal Japan into the North American West.