My friend Jay over at The Documentary Blog is NOT going to be happy to hear this… and I don’t blame him one little bit. We’ve known for some time now that a remake for Escape From New York was in the pipline. Attached as the director for the film was Len Wiseman, who did an ok job with the Underworld franchise (although I hated the second one), but did a really impressive job on Die hard 4.
Well, that’s out the window. Len Wiseman is now OFF Escape From New York and they now have a new director. Hold your breath and grab your undies… Brett Ratner. Yes, Rush Hour 3 Brett Ratner. Yes, X-Men 3 Brett Ratner. Yes… THAT Brett Ratner. Our friends over at IESB give us the following:
The IESB contacted a source over at New Line, the studio behind the film, and was able to confirm the story which is no longer a rumor but instead 100% fact. Brett Ratner will take over directorial duties on the remake.
So I don’t even know where to begin with this one. This is just wrong on so many levels. I’m not saying Wiseman was THE man to direct it… but at least he has a solid understanding and sense of action and style. What does Rattner have? He’s had Jackie Chan to set all his action… and he had a pre-existing successful franchise film (X-3) that he almost ruined. How on earth is this a good move?
Needs a director with a dark sense of humour about him.
But the casting needs reworked as much as I’d like Butler in the role being Scottish myself I’d prefer an American in the role.
My thoughts would be Snake played by Ryan Reynolds The Duke must be Samuel L Jackson and the president could then be Morgan Freeman.
Now the last two get my vote without doubt
Cool…
Why can’t they just do a third Escape with Carpenter and Russel instead of putting Ratner (a director that I don’t have nothing against but I think that he doesn’t “understand the material”)?
Brett Ratner being attached to any movie means 2 things…
1: The movie is going to be expensive.
2: The movie is going to be boringly terribly average with little or no understanding of what the audience is expecting to see.
And there is a 50% chance at a 3rd thing,
3: Chris Tucker will be in the movie. (Chris Tucker was good in Friday and The Fifth Element, but other than that he has just been annoying.)
Ratner was HANDED a money printing franchise movie (X3) and proceeded to make an average action movie that essentially killed the franchise.
How the hell do you make a movie that contains the Phoenix Saga into the pile of crap that X3 became?
He failed to have any vision, and had no understanding of the characters.
He didn’t make a bad movie, he just didn’t understand what was expected, and I expect the same thing in the Escape from NY remake, which is just sad…
Now, Henrik, I’m not so sure about putting Ratner over the likes of Spielberg- I didn’t give one spit about E.T. either- but y’know… I have yet to see Ratner do something like Jaws, Close Encounters, The Color Purple, Amistad… or co-produce the fun that was Gremlins, Back To The Future and that one film from this past summer…
But to each his own and, while all film is subjective, I’ll say this:
Micheal Mann’s ‘Manhunter’ was far superior to Ratner’s ‘Red Dragon’
There. I said it.
NYC is not the same city it was in 1981. What producers fail to realize is that “Escape From New York” was a product of it’s time – a commentary on the crime rate and a city in decay – much like “Taxi Driver” and the underrated “The Warriors”. It was not just an action movie with a cool guy with an eyepatch.
Another film from that genre that I caught on TCM the other night was “The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3” which I hear is slated for a remake and is also a bad idea for the same reason.
Henrik,
I wasn’t trying to “prove you wrong”. It’s your opinion, and as I’ve said several times now, you’re entitled to it. I way just showing that saying I “know nothing about movies” was an idiotic thing to say.
And the “Wow… just wow” statement wasn’t meant as condescending, but rather a simple expression of my stunned amazement that you actually thought that. Mostly because I’ve never heard anyone say it before…. EVER. It wasn’t a form of “debate”, it was an expression of total disagreement… which is totally fair.
But hell, I like Armageddon and Daredevil, so we’re all allowed to break from what the majority think is “good” or “bad” sometimes…. even if it’s to say Red Dragon was better than Raiders.
“Shall we count Oscars? Shall we count number of top 100 lists? Shall we count viewer or critics ratings?
Oppss…I forgot. No one knows anything EXCEPT Henrik right?”
Well we are discussing opinion. Do you think Oscars, top 100 lists and viewer or critics ratings are objective ways of proving me wrong? No one knows except me, what I like and what I don’t like, no matter what the consensus might be.
There’s no denying that saying “Wow…just wow.” is a condescending way of debating anything, so that’s why I got alittle pissed.
I’m not going to defend Brett. Rush Hour 3 speaks for itself. However the guy did do Rush Hour One, Red Dragon, The Family Man and Last Stand(which I prefer over the other two). If you ask me he’s a serviceable director. The Hollywood yes-man type you go to when you’ve be rejected by the A and B list directors. He’s going hit one out the park one of these days and when he does people will overrate him the way they overrate Brian Singer.
oh yea and henrik it will stop me from seeing this movie…….i didn’t let bay stop me from seeing tformers and i was fucked up the ass…..not doing that again…
yea i agree with alfie and jay…..i never was too impressed with the x-men series, i didnt really like the way singer handled the characters….and i never really understood why people considered x2 to be one of the best superhero movies ever…..anyway brett is an ok director, x3 was crap, red dragon was good (but really how can u fuck up edward nortan, anthony hopkins, and mr. hoffman), and the rush hour flicks did what they were supposed to (never saw 3)…
.but him coming to do a classic movie of the genre escape from new york is a bad idea…..ratner is safe and does just enough to make the movie passable….we need someone with vision and like john said style….ratner will turn this into a bland boring crap ass hollywood summer flick…..which is exactly what bay did to transformers…and lord knows we dont need another transformers….
Uwe Boll is better than Ratner anyday!!
Six words can settle this…
“At least its not Uwe Boll”
Gentlemen,
I want a fair fight.
No hitting below the belt.
Now go to your corners and let’s get it on!
Ding, Ding, Ding!
On a side note,
I’m a little more open to this remake since I really enjoyed the Halloween remake when I fully expected to despise it. Ratner is kind of a bummer, but I dont hate the guy’s films as much as most seem to.
I agree with Alfie that X-Men and X-2 are very overrated. Especially X-2. Other than the Nightcrawler scene that movie was actually pretty bland. Very average indeed. I’m not saying X-3 was the best one, but it was as good as the other two. In my opinion.
But anyway, back to Ratner and the remake…
I’m not gonna write it off just yet as I dont think he’s that bad.
I mean, shit… people are actually saying good things about Uwe Boll’s “Postal”, so obviously the sun shines on every dog’s ass at least once in his life.
Well…I wasn’t gonna watch it anyway….
Hey Henrik,
you said:
“As for “Wow… just wow.”, if you’re not going to explain it any further I’ll just assume you don’t know anything about the movies.”
Yup, you just go ahead and assume whatever you’d like.
Shall we count Oscars? Shall we count number of top 100 lists? Shall we count viewer or critics ratings?
Oppss…I forgot. No one knows anything EXCEPT Henrik right?
Look, all I’m saying is that you’re entitled to your opinion. You think Red Dragon (which actually I liked too) is better than raiders of the lost ark or et? I can’t disagree more strongly with you on that. But you’re entitled to that opinion. But don’t make a fool of yourself and suggest I know “nothing about movies” for holding the opposite view.
And yes Henrik, fully funded without a limitation on money is fully funded, weather the budget was okayed before or after the director comes on.
FYI: 90% of films have their budgets approved with a finished script LONG before a director is attached. It’s a part of the process the producer does before getting a director on board.
You don’t think it makes a difference if the director asks for a specific budget, or he inherits a budget on a project that has been going on before he came onboard?
As for “Wow… just wow.”, if you’re not going to explain it any further I’ll just assume you don’t know anything about the movies. Red Dragon has awesome performances from Emily Watson, Ralph Fiennes and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. It’s a top of the line genre movie, which is more than I can say for Raiders. I guess E.T. is pretty big in the kids-with-pets genre, but I don’t really care much for it either way.
Hey Henrik,
You said:
“Red Dragon was better than Raiders or E.T”
Wow… just wow. Oh well, all film is subjective and you’re entitled to your opinion.
You also said:
“That’s a stupid statement, seeing as he came in around 2 months before shooting”
How is that a stupid statement? It’s totally true. It’s 100% irrelevant when the money was approved. The fact of the matter is Ratner was handed a massively funded film.
Sorry, you don’t get to lament that Spielberg has huge budgets and then discount that Ratner did as well.
Alfie you have to be kidding me as well. Your spelling is a joke.
Red Dragon was better than Raiders or E.T. I haven’t seen Jaws or Close Encounters, so I can’t compare that.
“ratner spent close to 200 million on x men 3” That’s a stupid statement, seeing as he came in around 2 months before shooting, when the budget had already been approved, probably close to a year in advance.
i don’t know hy everyone is ripping on brett ratner just thibk about it len wiseman did a horrible job with underworld 2 and when it was announced that he was going to direct die hard 4 people didn’t like it and it turned out great. give ratner a break yeah he did rush hour but he probably did it for the money because its a franchise he probably wanted it to end. give him a chance this could turn out to be an ok movie
The idea of a remake just needs to be scrapped and “Escape from Earth” starring Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken needs to be made.
henrik you have to be kidding me.
o dpn’t hate ratner like many others but to even compare him to speilberg is absurd no matter how much you dislike speilberg..is speilberg as good as he was 20 years ago? of course not but lets talke when ratner has made anything even close to raiders of the lost ark…or jaws…or close encounters….or e.t.
and what do you mean poor man budget wise???
ratner spent close to 200 million on x men 3….what was rush hours budget ..something like 150 million??
This is almost as bad as hearing Paul W. Anderson writng and directing the Castlevaina movie. But he was called out of that thank god. Lets hope this happens with Escape from New York. Also whats with re-making John Carpenters movies? Whats next? A re-make of The Thing?
Will this stop any of you from seeing it?
Either way, give the guy a break. Red Dragon was amazing. How Brett Ratner is viewed as the antichrist and Steven Spielberg is viewed as a great director is fucking beyond me. Ratner is like a poor-mans Steven Spielberg, not talentwise but budgetwise.
NO FRAKKIN’ WAY!
Hey I liked Xmen three. I was there when they were filming here in San Francisco over Alcatraz. Brett Ratner can do action – I’d prefer
Walter Hill, but they are not going to hire him. Let Brett gain more experience.
Excuse me, I’m going to pretend I didn’t see this news and pray Kurt Russell starts kicking ass.
fuck this news.
first of all i am not a ratner defender by any means but I personally don’t think the guy is as bad as everyone makes out.
i actually don’t see much difference between his x men film and singers….i do think singers x men movies are two of the most over rated films of the past ten years though…i just think all 3 x men films are average.
and that is the exact problem with ratner…….he is just so fucking average.
I heard a guy on the chudcast sum him up best…
he is a decent footage gatherer.
he takes a script and shoots whats on the page and thats it. he brings nothing to any of his films. they are bland…he has almost no style at all..he makes safe choices and thats fine and all but please someone come their senses here…
I am not an anti remake guy….I take them a film at a time……but this is escape from new york. one f the best action films ever made and ratner is not the guy for it at all.
not if it is to be good anyway…..
and fuck butler as plissken as well…..he flukes his way to a hit in 300 which was a hit despiter his best efforts to destroy it with his fucking jawdroppingly bad acting and suddenly he is on the execs top list…..won’t be long until he is back at the bottom again when he is found wanting in ther talent stakes. the guy is dreadful.
anyway….I know I am rambling so in summation
fuck this film.
You’re right John, i’m not happy. Chris Tucker as Snake Plissken anyone?
He’s cheap?
I got nothing…..
And I thought McG on Terminator 4 was the worst news of the day…
Since Gerry Butler is Snake, I wonder…Gio…
who’s “the Duke Of New York, A #1?”?
NO! Don’t say it!!!
:o