Initially, the American remake rights to «Seven Samurai» have been owned by a screenwriter named Lou Morheim who wrote the scripts for movies like «The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms,» and TV exhibits like «The Outer Limits,» «The Large Valley,» and «Rawhide.» He would additionally ultimately function an govt producer on the undertaking. It was Morheim who pitched the Western «Seven Samurai» thought to actor Anthony Quinn as a possible car. Quinn was so taken with the concept, similar to the villagers within the film itself, he started trekking round Hollywood on the lookout for different group members to affix him. Quinn pitched Morheim’s thought to Yul Brynner, a scorching commodity after the successes of «The King and I» and «The Ten Commandments,» each from 1956.
Brynner additionally cherished the thought and in some way wrested it away from Quinn, deciding to make the movie on his personal phrases. Brynner took the lead function and started growing a script with producer Walter Mirisch. It was throughout this part of manufacturing that the unique samurai have been remodeled into untrustworthy ex-gunfighters and that the movie could be shot in widescreen technicolor on a funds of $2 million (a modest $20 million in 2022 {dollars}). Cinemascope had solely been launched to the general public with «The Gown» in 1953, so the format was nonetheless one thing of a novelty.
Lovell, in an interview on the Cinemadope web site, tells the story of how Mirisch offered a Western «Seven Samurai» to United Artists. Mirisch, the story goes, organized a screening of Kurosawa’s film on the studio lot with different UA executives and producers. Mirisch remembers everybody within the room having a grand expertise translating the basic into Western phrases in actual time. It was a pitch assembly by the use of «Thriller Science Theater 3000.»
