
Kurt Russell's Not Happy About The
Planned 'Escape From New York' Remake
(About/Apr 07/2007) By Rebecca Murray
Of course during the press rounds for
Grindhouse,
the Robert
Rodriguez/Quentin
Tarantino homage to campy B movies from the
60s and 70s, Kurt Russell was hit with a batch of questions aboutt
he
upcoming remake/sequel/prequel/whatever of
Escape From
New York.
Russell ('Stuntman Mike' in Tarantino's
Death Proof
segment
of
Grindhouse)
had already expressed his displeasure with
the
announcement of
Gerard
Butler
(300)
in the role of Snake
Plissken
- a character Russell created - and during the LA media
roundtables
for
Grindhouse
he reiterated his position on the subject.
Asked if he'd spoken with writer/director John Carpenter about
the
Escape From New York
remake Russell replied, "No, I haven't
talked
to John for a long time. We're great friends, but we haven't
talked
in a while. I haven't talked to him about
Grindhouse.
I just
heard
about the remake, and you have to understand that some
Disney
movies that I've done have been done in remakes.
Stargate
was
turned into a television show that was very successful and
Backdraft
was turned into two television shows that were on TV and
did
well, I guess. I don't know. They're going to remake
The
Thing.
They're
going to remake
Escape From New York.
I created the
character
of Snake and so I have a little bit of a different feeling about that, and
my feeling about that is, and I've joked about this all day, very simply,
'Wait
until Stuntman Mike hears about this. It's really going to set him off.' (Laughing)
So, it's 2007. I'm working on
Grindhouse
and am trying to create
something
that an audience can have fun with today."
And don't even think Russell will make an appearance in the
proposed remake. "F**k no,"
said Russell. "That would be ridiculous. That would be like Sean
Connery
doing something in Roger Moore's
007.
It would be like, 'What? Please.' No. 'Go off on your own. Good luck.'"
Russell continued, "Here's the thing. I know this, any time that
you're going to do
something
that someone else created, an iconic character that they
make
figurines of, they have to accept that they're taking that role on. That's a given.
I created that. I'll never
not
have created that. That's just the way
it
is."
Russell's latest film,
Grindhouse,
and the original 1981
Escape From New York
have a lot in common. In fact it could even be said Rodriguez's gory,
over-the-top
zombie flick is a love letter to Carpenter. But Russell says there is a
big difference between Carpenter's films and the Tarantino/Rodriguez
movie.
"Well, it's like taking some of John's movies that he did that were in that vein,
like
Them
and portions of
Escape From New York,
and then putting
them
into the grindhouse thing," explained Russell. "But when we did
Escape From New York,
that doesn't qualify really as grindhouse. That was just a
quirky,
weird movie at the time. But their reverence for John Carpenter, both (Robert)
and Quentin's, is enormous. We spent many, many hours talking
about
different things, movies that John and I had done, all of them."
Russell has fond memories of life on the set with Carpenter.
"We'd be getting ready
to
do a scene and we would talk about what to do and then
sometimes
we'd say, 'Well, should probably do this.' Then we would look at each other
and say, 'Well, let’s do what we want to do because it might be 10
or 15 years before anyone can kind of watch it.' But there will
be someone out there
who says, 'Yeah, there you go. That's the way to do it.' I loved John
for
always wanting to do that, to do the right thing for a movie that we thought would
hold together for 25 years or more."
With all this talk of remakes and returning to older projects, is
there even the remotest
of possibilities Russell would reunite with Sylvester Stallone for a
sequel
to
Tango and Cash?
"No, I don't like doing sequels," responded Russell. "I've not done them in my
life.
I did one. I did
Escape From L.A.
and I did
it
for a number of reasons. Mainly, I wanted to work for John one more time and I
wanted
to play Snake again, but I don't do sequels. I haven't done
them.
I signed up for movies that, if they were going to do more of them, I thought
that
it was okay. I would've done them and would in the future, but
sequels
for the most part for me have always been uninteresting and I think that you
make a movie as that experience. An audience should feel as if they
were
having that experience. Now,
Sky
High
is a kind of fun thing that if they wanted to make more movies about those kids
and
I have a character in
that,
I don't have a problem with that. But do I want to do
Big Trouble in Little China IV
or do I want to do
The
Thing III?
Listen, I was asked about all of those
movies. I had a chance to make a lot of money and I chose to have a different
career.
I just didn't do that and I'm really glad that I didn't. I think
that
I would've quit a long time ago. I would've said, 'No.'"