Peter Sarsgaard is being lined up to star in 'The Magnificent Seven' film.

Peter Sarsgaard

Peter Sarsgaard

The 44-year-old actor is reportedly in negotiations to play the main villain, robbing baron Bartholomew Bogue, in the remake of the classic Western.

In the plot, Bogue and his henchmen target a small town situated near a gold mine and a gun fight ensues leading to the deaths of several townsfolk which inspires a widowed wife - played by Haley Bennett - to hire Denzel Washington's bounty hunter character and his hand-picked six gunmen to drive them out.

The six other heroes are set to be played by Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Luke Grimes, Wagner Moura, Byung-hun Lee and Vincent D'Onofrio.

Jason Momoa was in the frame to play one of the gunslingers but, according to Deadline, he has decided to drop out because his role isn't big enough.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua, 'The Magnificent Seven' - due for release in January 2017 - will be a re-imagining of the 1960 film directed by John Sturges, which itself was inspired by Akira Kurosawa's 1954 classic 'Seven Samurai'.

Sturges' version starred Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn and Robert Vaughn as a group of disparate gunmen who come together to protect a Mexican village from bandits led by Eli Wallach, and led to a number of sequels as well as a television series.