Caffeinated Clint
Aussie filmmaker Leigh Whannell, out promoting the bravura redo of “The Invisible Man” around the stout globe, has a few projects on his to-do list, one of which is the long-gestating remake of John Carpenter classic “Escape from New York”.
Not surprisingly, considering what a priceless nugget the original Kurt Russell starrer is, the former RMIT student is nervy about touching such a beloved property.
“It’s funny, I’ve been so busy working on this film [The Invisible Man] where I haven’t had time to circle back around on that project”, the filmmaker told JoBlo. “Sometimes these press releases go out before you’re ready, you’re like, ‘Don’t tell the world!’ I don’t actually know, I really don’t.
That is an iconic character and I think that Snake Plissken is a part of people’s childhood and their adolescence. It’s near and dear to them. So I would tread very carefully with that. I feel like a property like that doesn’t have the same freedom as maybe something like ‘The Invisible Man’ does. He has more elasticity as a character because so many people have had their fingerprints on that. There’s been TV shows and comic books, whereas with Escape from New York, we’re talking about one definitive movie here and you don’t want to mess with it. We’ll see what happens.”
As far as casting goes, Whannell says an “obvious choice” would be to cast Wyatt Russell, Kurt’s son and the star of such films as “Overlord” and “Everybody Wants Some”, but obviously too early to spectate as to whether the 33-year-old actor will even get a call to test with an eye-patch.
