Benicio Del Toro to Hop a Horse

By Stephen M. Silverman

03/08/2002 at 12:00 PM EST

"Traffic" Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro, 35, is about to fill some shoes worn nearly 30 years ago by actor Warren Oates: those of the character Bennie in the gritty 1974 western from director Sam Peckinpah, "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia." The movie, which also originally starred Kris Kristofferson, is being remade, reports Variety. Del Toro will star as a bounty hunter who seeks the skull of a man who seduced the daughter of a wealthy Mexican rancher. Variety says the new screenplay is being written by Mateo Silva, a Harvard English professor. Del Toro and the project's first-time movie director, Samuel Bayer, also will serve as producers. (Bayer is a veteran of music videos for acts including the Rolling Stones and Marilyn Manson.) Meanwhile, says the trade paper, "Alfredo" is not the only head on the table. Tina Sinatra, daughter of the one and only Frank, has joined forces with mega-producer Scott Rudin ("Shaft," "Zoolander," "The Royal Tennenbaums") to remake her father's 1962 psychological thriller "The Manchurian Candidate," about a political assassination. (Frank Sinatra withdrew the picture from circulation in the wake of the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy, though the picture was re-released to great acclaim in 1988.) Tina, 53, will coproduce with Rudin and Paramount will make it.