Vincent D’Onofrio is saddling up for ‘The Magnificent Seven’

Vincent D’Onofrio has played his share of bad guys in such films as “Men in Black,” but the versatile character actor gets to be “Magnificent” in his next film project.

Although news reports last week said D’Onofrio was in talks to play the villain opposite Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke in the reboot of the 1960 Western “The Magnificent Seven,” in a phone interview Monday morning D’Onofrio said those reports (first in Variety, then confirmed by The Times) are “not true.” Not only has he signed on to be in the film, he said, “I’m actually playing one of the ‘Seven.’ We’re shooting in Baton Rouge for like three months or so.”

D’Onofrio isn’t revealing what character he will be playing, but he said he was excited to be joining the film from Sony Pictures and MGM. The original, which starred Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen and Eli Wallach, will be remade with Antoine Fuqua directing.

“Magnificent Seven” reunites D’Onofrio with Pratt, with whom he appears in the upcoming “Jurassic World.”

“Chris Pratt is an amazing guy,” D’Onofrio said. “We’re friends now.”

D’Onofrio is in Atlanta making James Franco’s adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Depression-era drama “In Dubious Battle.” He will be seen next in the thriller “Broken Horses,” opening April 10, and as the villainous Kingpin in Marvel’s “Daredevil” series premiering the same day on Netflix.