A bit of musical chairs is occurring in regards to the upcoming remake of The Magnificent Seven. It's something of a high priority for MGM, desperate to re-ignite all their brand names, including Robocop, Poltergeist, Death Wish and WarGames. This is what happens when a studio is in dire financial straits, but at least things were whirring in a positive direction with this latest redo. Even without a director, Nic Pizolatto was attached to write and more importantly, Tom Cruise was engaged as the star. Full steam ahead, right?

Well all bets are off, and Cruise and Pizzolatto are now off the project, according to The Wrap . Well, that escalated quickly. No reason has been given for Cruise's departure, though he was attached since May '12, and there's been very little momentum on the project thus far. Cruise can't mess around; he's in amazing shape right now, but he's in his fifties, so there's only so much more running and jumping he can do. Now that he's got Mission: Impossible 5 and Jack Reacher: Round Two on the docket, while also tossing around that Van Helsing relaunch, it was probably one action project too many for the not-really-aging action icon.

As for Pizzolatto, he may still be on-board, but his script is getting a high profile re-write. Pizzolato was a TV writer who earned plaudits for HBO's upcoming True Detective, but he has no film credits to his name. Instead, the script is being doctored by John Lee Hancock, the company man behind directorial efforts Saving Mr. Banks and The Blind Side. Hancock came up the ranks as a screenwriter for Clint Eastwood's A Perfect World and and has been working on The American Can for Will Smith to star. Hancock's also something of a problem-solver: The Wrap reports that he recently aided in the reshoots for Disney's big-budget Maleficent.

The Magnificent Seven, one of the recent additions to the National Film Registry, remains a western classic. The picture is a loose spin off The Seven Samurai where a group of gunslingers are tasked with protecting a Mexican village. You don't really need a re-introduction to the American classic; you've probably seen it quite a few times, right? Well, if not, there's a trailer below so you can quit dragging your feet. It's always had quite the murderer's row of talent attached: a contemporary version of the film would have to team Cruise with a similarly stacked lineup, and those tend to be difficult to assemble. Any number of online articles could alert you to the many people who couldn't join Ocean's Eleven for one reason or another. Who should star in this new Magnificent Seven? Tell us below.