The Magnificent Seven

There is a remake being planned of "The Magnificent Seven", in 2017. A remake of a remake, which has already been remade multiple times

One of which was this, which you have to see.

Now, we all have a negative view of remakes, and I don't have a good feeling about this one. I know and acknowledge that there have been truly excellent remakes, presented here:

1. The Fly (David Cronenberg) - 1986
2. The Thing (John Carpenter) - 1982
3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher) - 2011
4. Mother's Day (Darren Lynn Bouseman) - 2010
5. Cape Fear (Martin Scorcese) - 1991
6. Bram Stoker's Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola) - 1992
7. Ocean's Eleven (Steven Soderbergh) - 2001
8. Zatoichi (Takeshi Kitano) - 2003
9. King Kong (Peter Jackson) - 2005
10. Scarface (Brian De Palma) - 1983
11. 13 Assassins (Takeshi Miike) - 2011
12. Hairspray (Adam Shankman) - 2007
13. True Grit (The Coen Brothers) - 2010

There are more, but you get the point, not all remakes suck.

However, this version of "The Magnificent Seven" (a stellar Western and magnificent retelling of a classic film) needs something more.
The Magnificent Seven worked because it was not just Seven Samurai, but because it transferred that situation (a simple story of good and evil, whereby the strong can either exert their power over the weak, or use that very strength to do the right thing, at no benefit to themselves. For goodness is its own reward. Or is it...?) into the wild west and made it about age, youth, legends, violence, the nature of good and evil, redemption and courage, whilst allowing some of the best actors of the day to rub shoulders and get some cracking lines and truly excellent parts to work with. They took the class warfare aspect of Kurosawa's film and removed it, then changed characters which wouldn't work into others that would (Robert Vaughn's Lee being an excellent addition, for example), and thus created a wonderful ensemble piece, anchored by the always awesome Yul Brynner.

So you cannot just make a Western.
You need to change it up, make it a movie to resonate with the modern day (though, Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven already do that, in my mind) audience, and to touch upon modern themes.
The easy route would be to take a gangster approach (Antoine Fuqua, the director, made Training Day, which is excellent, and thus this seems like an obvious step for him), whereby a small group (say... seven?) tough guys help to defend an area against a rampaging biker gang, for example.

But considering the names attached to the project (Denzel Motherfucking Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio and Lee Byung-hun, amongst other lesser known actors like Wagner Moura), you'd need to do something a little different. Maybe, something darker or controversial. Maybe something which increases it to a larger scale...
Not Battle Beyond the Stars, though that would be amazing (Space-Denzel! Who wouldn't want to see that?!).

Say, you have a small area in a developing nation. Maybe an unnamed African, Asian or even (to lessen the chances of racism or weird colonial attitudes) Eastern Europe, whereby the inhabitants are, indeed, plagued by attackers. They make off with their food, their resources, even their women and children. A dark, horrible life for all involved, and there seems to be no escape.
These attackers operate with impunity in this war-torn land, doing as they please and using this village and the surrounding area as their local stomping ground. This particular village is next on their hit-list, and there is no chance of help from the army, the police, the UN, anyone.
So others must be brought in.
Say... mercenaries.
A young woman goes in search of anybody who can help her. But her only chances are the very foreigners who normally lead such attacks, who pillage and plunder this country. She's cautious and wary, but these seem unlike the others.
They take her up on the offer, having done some terrible things in their lifetime, especially in places such as this. They find others who will help their cause (a wanted man, a hotshot wannabe, a psychopath broken by war, etc...) and these seven accompany the girl to the village.

What follows is a tense examination of foreign attitudes, colonial era legacies and the horrors of war as these seven try to help. You'd have one of the big names (I'd go with Pratt) set up to be the lead, being the most sympathetic of the seven, setting him up to be the hero of the piece. But then you'd kill him off spectacularly, surprisingly (one of the flaws was that you knew at least Yul Brynner would make it, as well as Steve McQueen), and leave us guessing.
Heck, maybe kill off all of them?

Just don't make another Western version.
Change it up.
Please.