Gerard Butler joins "Escape From New York"

Okay, seriously. The remakes are getting a little out of hand. We need an EFNY remake like we need Gigli 2.

I like Butler, great actor, but he is better than remaking a classic like this. This news makes my stomach turn. And like someone postes earier, I am waiting for that nice release.

"KJ's Take: I'm afraid the original is a bit too dated for me. I only vaguely remember the 1996 sequel, Escape from L.A., and only watched bits and pieces at that. Regardless, if done right, I think this could be a very, very cool action film"

I can't believe I'm dignifying this with a response but are you kidding? You can't recreate that movie. It has a flavor and feel that are also heavily due to when it was made. It's not a brilliant movie but it's an imperfect masterpiece. Snake Plissken cannot be re-cast and even though I like Gerard Butler I think this is a bad move on his part and his Scottish "lisp" won't help sell Snake either.

Donald Pleasance crying and yelling "The Duke of New York!!"...priceless

Even the guy with the crazy hair who 2nd's the Duke. Who plays him? Stiffler?

Would you re-cast Han Solo?...Well you would if J.J Abrams was making a prequel about his days at the smuggling academy)....NO!

I would much rather see a sequel to The Thing. Butler would be great in that and he wouldn't even have to play Kurt's role as MacCready would be dead or getting his thing on. Plus it technically could be something new and not a remake.

Um, they did do a remake of this. It was called Escape from L.A. for some reason, though they cast Kurt Russel again... ;-)

Seriously if you watch the two movies back to back you can't dismiss the similarities. Almost everything from L.A. was taken from New York.

Anyway, yeah, I'll check it out.

I'm sorry. I respect Gerard Butler and all that but the simple fact for me is....

I don't see anyone playing Snake Plissken besides Kurt Russel.

He is the RJ MacReady. He is Jack Burton. He is Snake Plissken.

Nobody else comes close.

Well skoora, they're recasting Kirk and Spock, and I'd venture to say that they're WAAAAY bigger icons than Snake...I'm not even sure if Snake is considered an icon...not saying he's not cool or anything, just pointing out that movie producers have incredibly huge testicles nowadays to be recasting characters that people love.

Jeezus H. Kripes!!!!! Do you know what the only thing in this cotton picking world that is more brainshatteringly annoying than remakes is!!? All the bitching and complaining about it! Jebus! at least have an rational reason! No one can play Snake but Russel? This will either be decent or suck donkey nuts... I liked EFNY, so hopfully it will be cool.... Here's a question, why do remakes tie everyones testies in a knot?.... and don't give me that Hollywood is out of origional ideas bullshit.... even original movies normally are simular to something, let's face it it's all been done.

Well, to answer your question MadManiac, I think people get pissed at remakes are because1) instead of coming up with something original, Hollywood studios rather just reuse old material. They figure that it will be much easier and cheaper to just remake an older film, throw in some new tech and watch the dough roll in. That way, they don`t have to risk much. They know most people will go see it, if nothing else to compare it with the orignal. 2) People who have seen the original and really enjoyed it, don`t want to see their favorite character played by someone else.
I used to hate remakes but there is no use in complaining about them anymore because they aren't going away. Hollywood has been remaking flicks since the medium existed. I do think that certain movies shouldn't be remade, because they were fine the first time.
I really liked EFNY. It was a crazy flick and reminded me of Mad Max, but with an American twist. Russell was great as Snake. EFLA was just a shell of EFNY and was just a waste of time. I could see Butler being a pretty cool Snake, but I just don`t see why they`d want to remake it. People can just go rent the original. How could they possibly make the story better?

I liked the original. We don't need another remake. Come on Hollywood: You have to have SOME original ideas left...

GOOD GOING PONYBOY! Why did you have to mention "Mad Max." Now, some asshole in Hollywood probably just read your post and got a crazy idea of remaking "The Road Warrior." >=O. Some producer just got little money signs in his eyes, thinking, well if we can't get mel to do a sequel, then we'll do a remake. Just kidding, pony, but seriously I'm getting nervous with all these remakes. At first, I didn't mind bc they were remaking stuff even before my time, but now there getting closer to the stuff that I was raised on, and so help me god if they re-do "Ghostbusters" or "Predator" there is going to be hell to pay, HELL TO PAY!

"even original movies normally are simular to something, let's face it it's all been done."

I completely agree. Even when Mania posts an accouncement that a movie is getting made based on an original screenplay, the first thing that happens is everybody posts things like "that sounds like "Gremlins" meets "Joe vs. the Volcano" or some other such comparison to existing movies.

A few hundred years ago a guy named Shakespeare was writing plays, most of them either remakes of existing plays or based on historical events - either way, most of his plays were based on stories which had already been told. I wonder how many theater patrons back in his day complained that Shakespeare was churning out yet another remake.