Fresh news about the long-in-the-works Escape From New York remake made the rounds this week, and ETonline asked the film's original hero, Kurt Russell, for his thoughts on the project.
Fresh news about the long-in-the-works Escape From New York remake made the rounds this week, and ETonline asked the film's original hero, Kurt Russell, for his thoughts on the project as he was promoting his new thriller, The Art of the Steal.
Producer Joel Silver told Collider this week that he has plans to turn the long-in-the-works Escape reboot into a full-fledged trilogy, inspired by the storyline for the Batman videogame Arkham City.
Asked if he'd be interested in being involved in the new project in any way, Russell told ETonline, "I don't know what my involvement would be. I can't imagine that, so I doubt that. But Joel's a good guy to do it."
Of course, Russell and director John Carpenter delivered one of the best remakes ever with The Thing in 1981, and asked what he thought of Escape being remade, he replied, "Nothing's sacred. Everything should be on the board. … You know, go get it, and see if you can make something the audience really has a ball with. I suppose there's room for it. We did what we did, and it's out there for people to go see and hopefully enjoy still."
U.K. stars Tom Hardy, Jason Statham and Gerard Butler have all been rumored in the press to be the chosen ones to don the Snake Plissken eyepatch and scowl, and Russell has strong feelings about the ultimate casting of the character that he established in both Escape From New York in 1981 and returned to in 1996 for Escape from L.A.
"I can only say one thing that I know to be true about Snake Plissken -- he's very American," Russell tells ETonline. "So thoughts of actors that aren't American I find to be putting Snake on an international scope and scale. He's an escape artist – he's an American escape artist."
Related Video: Kurt Russell Talks About 'The Thing' in '82
In the highly entertaining The Art of the Steal Kurt plays Crunch Calhoun, a third rate motorcycle daredevil and semi-reformed art thief who agrees to one final heist with his untrustworthy brother (played by Matt Dillon). Of course, the plan goes awry and Crunch's code of honor and the bonds of brotherhood are put to the test. The film arrives in theaters March 14 and is now available on VOD.
Stay tuned to ETonline for more with Kurt Russell and writer/director Jonathan Sobol on The Art of the Steal.