After securing Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt for their remake of the Western classic The Magnificent Seven, MGM has brought on Haley Bennett to play the female lead. Deadline reports she beat out several other actresses in what is being described as a "starmaking role." The actress will play the widow of a murdered man, who lives in a gold mine town that has been taken over by a baron and his thugs. She hires a bounty hunter to get rid of these evil men, giving him enough money to hire six other gunmen to help their cause.

The original Western The Magnificent Seven debuted in 1960, starring Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter, James Coburn and Horst Buchholz as the seven gunmen, with Eli Wallach portraying the villainous Calvera, who terrorizes a small Mexican fishing village. The Western, directed by John Sturges, was itself a loose remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 classic Seven Samurai.

Antoine Fuqua is directing from a script by True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto and John Lee Hancock (Saving Mr. Banks). It isn't known when production will begin at this time. Haley Bennett most recently starred in The Equalizer, which Antoine Fuqua directed, and After the Fall. She will next be seen in The Blunderer alongside Patrick Wilson, Jessica Biel and Imogen Poots.