JAMES MARSDEN - X-MEN STAR MARSDEN SET FOR STRAW DOGS REMAKE

X-MEN STAR MARSDEN SET FOR STRAW DOGS REMAKE

James Marsden is signed up for a 'reimagining' of the controversial 1971 film Straw Dogs, it has been reported.

Sam Peckinpah's revenge thriller gained notoriety during the 1980s when it was effectively banned due to a contentious rape scene involving actress Susan George.

The film was passed for viewing by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) in 2002 when it was adjudged by clinical psychologists to be safe for home viewing.

In Rod Lurie's planned remake, Marsden will play a Hollywood screenwriter who moves with his wife - not yet cast - to her hometown in the Deep South of the modern US.

As in Peckinpah's original, Lurie's version will see tensions growing between the married couple and a violent confrontation sparked by escalating tensions with the local residents.

Marsden, most recently seen in Enchanted, 27 Dresses and Hairspray, is best known as the mutant Cyclops in the trilogy of X-Men films.

He can next be seen in Neil LaBute's comedy Death at a Funeral and alongside Cameron Diaz in thriller The Box.