March 22, 2007 – The news that New Line Cinema is remaking Escape From New York — and have cast 300 Gerard Butler as Snake Plissken — hasn’t exactly met with universal approval from many fans of the original film. And one of those fans is the man who starred in it, Kurt Russell.
Russell fumed about the remake to Entertainment Weekly, especially the casting of a Scottish actor to succeed him as one-eyed badass Snake Plissken. “I will say that when I was told who was going to play Snake Plissken, my initial reaction was ‘Oh, man!’ [Russell winces . I do think that character was quintessentially one thing. And that is, American,” the actor advised EW.com.
To Russell, his Escape From New York anti-hero wasn’t just any other role. “People come up to me and say, ‘You played Snake Plissken.’ I didn’t play Snake Plissken, I created him!”
He is also adamantly against the idea of making a cameo or playing any other role in it. “(Expletive) that! I am Snake Plissken! It’s like Sean Connery always watching someone else do their version of Bond. I think one of the things, for instance, about Escape From New York that appealed to me was that it wasn’t a special effects extravaganza. It’s a quiet, dark world and it revolved around watching the behavior of this one guy. He’s a fascinating character. In fact, he’s the most complex character I’ve ever played.”