‘Magnificent Seven’ filming commitments mean that directing duties for the ‘Training Day’ pilot shift from Antoine Fuqua to veteran Danny Cannon…
We noted recently that 2001’s Training Day (which originally starred Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke as compromised narcotic cops) was getting the tv adaptation treatment and that its original movie director Antoine Fuqua would be the man helming the pilot episode – as it was something of a passion-project for him. However due to a scheduling conflict with Fuqua’s current film production, he’s had to pull out of those pilot duties. While Fuqua continues to work on the controversial remake of western classic The Magnificent Seven, he’ll be handling the Training… duties to another sure pair of hands: Danny Cannon.
It’s been a long time since Cannon began his career with the likes of The Yong Americans and the original Judge Dredd, but he’s become the go-to director for many hit television shows, often helping them make a strong debut on the schedules. He directed the pilot episodes for shows such as The Tomorrow People, Nikita, Dark Blue, the original CSI and, most recently, helped to kick-start Gotham. He’s also been an executive producer on many primetime shows
The Training Day series, set fifteen years after the events in the film, will reverse the dynamic of the original story – now having an idealistic black rookie seeing how a veteran caucasian officer breaks the rules. There’s no casting news for the series at the moment, though rumours that Hawke might appear in the show – perhaps as the veteran officer – appear to be unfounded as he’s also somewhat busy…
The Magificent Seven continues moving forward with both Washington and Hawke working with Fuqua once again. Their co-stars include Haley Bennett, Chris Pratt, Matt Bomer, Vincent D’Onofrio, Peter Sarsgaard, Bartholomew Bogue, Cam Gigandet, Vinnie Jones, Sean Bridgers and Byung-hun Lee. The film will soon be in full post-production and is due to debut in late September.
