David Ayer Hopes Dirty Dozen Remake Launches an Action Franchise

David Ayer’s remake of The Dirty Dozen is one that the writer/director hopes becomes a new franchise. Ayer spoke with Collider about the new film, which will be set in a modern context as opposed to the original which was set during World War II.

“I think it’s more open and exciting. For me, World War II is the Holy War,” he said. “To do a more fun, comedic version of that war, I don’t think I could pull that off. But absolutely, I can do that present day, and have that fun and anarchy and wildness, and have modern characters with incredible diversity and real voices.”

Regarding the film’s franchise potential, Ayer said, “I think it’s just an opportunity for a great ensemble action franchise. I’ll have a really solid lead character, and I see it in the vein of the Mission: Impossible movies, or the Fast and Furious franchise, for which I wrote the first one. It’s like anything, you build an amazing family of characters, and then you watch them bounce off of each other and drive each other crazy.”

The film is not yet in production and does not have a release date set. The original Dirty Dozen was released in 1967 and starred Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas, Robert Webber and Donald Sutherland, winning an Oscar for Best Sound Editing.