David Ayer's 'Dirty Dozen' reboot could become 'action franchise'

Plans to reboot the classic wartime action romp The Dirty Dozen could be bigger than we first thought.

David Ayer, director of Suicide Squad (which itself lifted the premise of the Dirty Dozen and transplanted it into the world of DC Comics), is directing the new movie for Warner Bros.

And in a recent interview, he expanded on how things could be opened up for future movies, all being well at the box office.

Read more: David Ayer for Dirty Dozen remake

As well as bringing the action up to date – it won't be set in World War II, it seems – the plan is to potentially bring a whole new franchise to the fore.

Ayer told Collider: “I think it’s just an opportunity for a great ensemble action franchise. I’ll have a really solid lead character, and I see it in the vein of the Mission: Impossible movies, or the Fast and Furious franchise, for which I wrote the first one. It’s like anything, you build an amazing family of characters, and then you watch them bounce off of each other and drive each other crazy.

“I think it’s more open and exciting. For me, World War II is the Holy War. To do a more fun, comedic version of that war, I don’t think I could pull that off. But absolutely, I can do that present day, and have that fun and anarchy and wildness, and have modern characters with incredible diversity and real voices.”

The original movie was released in 1967, directed by Robert Aldrich and based on E.M. Nathanson's novel of the same name.

It found Lee Marvin's army major bringing together a squad of condemned prison convicts for a suicide mission just prior to D-Day, the carrot of a pardon dangled for those who survive (sounds familiar).

An all-star cast including Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas and Donald Sutherland ensured its place among the pantheon of classic war movies.

No word yet on who could be fronting Ayer's version.