I’ve said it on here before… I don’t mind the idea of remakes. It’s an opportunity to take a good idea and put a fresh perspective or introduce it to a whole new audience that may have never seen it before, or may never see it since a lot of people don’t back date and watch older movies (which is a shame). Most of the time remakes don’t work… but sometimes they do (just like any movie really).
Having said that, I didn’t mind the idea of an Escape From New York remake. The majority of people out there haven’t seen the original (and probably never will sadly) and it’s a good enough story that I think deserves to be introduced to a new generation. But man a lot of people got up in arms about it.
The reaction has been as if the studio told all the original fans that they were taking the original and burning every copy of them so they can never see it again (followed by an evil laugh).
Anyway, this curious bit of news just came out where John Carpenter is suggesting the “remake” may actually be some sort of prequel. Our good friends over at Filmjunk give us this:
The first important detail is that the movie may not actually be a remake at all. Carpenter says that a big part of the movie is about Snake Plissken before he gets to New York. I guess that’s kind of open to interpretation, but it begs the question even more: why not bring back Kurt Russell?? The other thing mentioned in the interview is that John Carpenter will actually involved in the movie… sort of. As executive producer he will read over the script to make sure the character is consistent with his original vision.
I think my good friend Sean who wrote that article for FilmJunk is off his rocker when he suggests the question is “why not bring Russell back”. It’s a prequel dude… Snake is a character in his 30’s. As much as I love Kurt Russell… this role isn’t him anymore. That’s like saying if they make a Silver Spoons movie they should bring Ricky Schroder back to play the little kid again.
I think the REAL question is… if it’s a Prequel… why on earth call it “Escape from New York”??? Any thoughts?
“fuck this reimagining bullshit how about they just reiamging soemthing fucking original the braindead, creatively dried up jaded filmmaker wankers….fuck them…”
Dude,
Words cant descibe how hard I laughed at that statement or how much I f**king agree with it. 100% agree.
And everything else to be honest.
Especially the “Leave something to the imagination” part.
Christ, I could go on for hours about how much explaining Snake Plissken would suck. It will never live up to what I’ve imagined his history to be in my mind and it will only end up pissing me off because of how shitty it is in comparison to what I see with my mind’s eye.
And F**K Rob Zombie and his raping of the best slasher movie to ever be made.
“I need a mask to take a poop”
F**K YOU, Rob Zombie.
F**k you with the most rotten, shit covered, camel dick in the world.
I know I dont normally act this way, but this whole Halloween shit and the pillaging of classics in general has got me riled up.
I apologise for the language.
And No, it doesnt affect my enjoyment of the originals.
They will remain the classics that they have always been in my eyes.
My anger comes from the fact that some jack-ass thinks he can do better with something that is already so loved instead of actually putting something out there that doesnt rip off something else.
Create something, you jerk-offs.
Create new classics. Dont rape another man’s masterpiece and think that you can improve on it.
I’m not against remakes in every case.
Some things can be improved upon. But leave the greats alone.
Good luck with that, Alfie.
Voices in the wind.
The most irritating thing about the mentality is that they have the backing of an alleged geek squad. Nothing is left to CHALLEGE imagination, nothing is left for an audience to think or get wrapped up in the story or characters. I stress “challenge”, because there are films that leave nothing to the imagination-but show us the filmmakers imaginations. Not *always* a bad thing. Unless you’e Zach Snyder, who ,in a statement the other day when talking about some 300 critics, that he makes films for stupid people and that going to the movies requires no ‘intellectual thought’.
There is backstory in Escape From New York, and if it might be like Nord suggests above, I could see that. Note that if were an actual prequel were in play, that the story takes place in an alternate reality/timeline….although I don’t know if I would want
“Escape From Leningrad”
escape from la is fucking terrible. it is awful on every level….but that is par for the course for carpenter these days….he has lost it..he may be responsible for some of my favorite films of all time (halloween, assault on precinct 13, the thing, they live, in the mouth of madness, escape from new york) but he has not made a good film in a long long long time…and it isn’t just that they are not good his recent films are fucking terrible.
jason you really need to see efny as soon as possible…it is one of the bets films ever made and once you see that you will understand why people hate la so much….its terrible.
Jay you are fucking spot on….EFNY is a classic..not only that but that character is iconic and it is ridiculous to think anyone can just walk in and play that character…..i am not getting down on butler but can anyone really see him snarling “call me snake” in that quiet rasp?? maybe he will just shout it in a scottish brogue or what ever that fucking word is that should be were I just
put brogue…casting of butler reeks of not giving a fuck about the character of plissken and only caring about the fact that butler is “hot” now so fuck it just chuck him in anything…
he isn’t right at all to portray plissken as we know him….fuck this reimagining bullshit how about they just reiamging soemthing fucking original the braindead, creatively dried up jaded filmmaker wankers….fuck them…
if this is a prequel well how is this for an idea..give the character a new name and just make it something of its own..why tag it onto plissken “mythology”….why why why
why do these fucking studios and film makers think they have to over explain everything – we have rob zombie deciding michael myers needs to be exlained..they just “explained” hannibal….
even the star wars prequels..the clone wars were so much cooler in my imagination when obi wan mentioned them briefly in a new hope then anything we got from the prequels….
LEAVE SOMETHING TO THE IMAGINATION….in the escape films snake is a legend to everyone…they all now of him…they heard he was dead…all that stuff is great and your mind goes crazy thinking about what happened….but we don’t need some boring hollywood hack giving us his version of it because 9 times out of time it winds up being horseshit
I hate this idea…….fucking hate it.
Jason,
If you had watched Escape From New York first back when it came out, you would understand the hate for the LA based sequel. I’m not saying you’re not allowed to like it or that you’re stupid for liking it, but if you had seen the first one first, you would understand.
Nord,
I like that concept also.
It’s kind of what I thought they meant too.
Truth be told, though…
I still dont think they should remake it at all. EFNW is a classic and should not be touched… but since whan has that mattered?
Hey Nord,
That’s actually a pretty good idea. i wonder if that’s what they’re aiming for.
Well I think thats why they said “prequel of sorts” it’s not a full on prequel. My best guess would be is that is a remake of EFNY with a lot more lead-in. Now that I think about it, the original feels like it begins in the second act anyways, so I think its possible it is a remake with an original first act to set the characters up.
Nord
You know, I don’t get all the hate for Escape from L.A. I admit, I saw that movie without ever seeing NY (still haven’t), watched it late at night in my dorm (I love movies that are fully set at night!) and enjoyed it. It’s not a GREAT movie or anything like that – except the Peter Fonda/surfer cameo which I didn’t understand – but I thought it was a cool little flick. The way things are going in this country, that could very well turn out to be an American city within the next 20 years, too.
/rant
Maybe its the state not the city? If its a prequel then yeah bringing back Russell makes no sense. Kinda of like ST11;).
Much as I love the original, a straight up remake of it would not bother at all. Though a LA remake has more potential as that one was not very good.