Will Timothy Olyphant be the next Snake Plissken?

Director Breck Eisner claims his star of The Crazies 'would be great' for Escape from New York remake. Has he lost his mind?

By Guest Writer /

Did Timothy Olyphant really show the required bad-assery chops in Hitman and The Crazies to warrant cleaning the boots of Kurt Russell's enviable Snake Plissken, let alone step into the role for New Line's much stalled remake of John Carpenter€™s 1981 action classic, Escape from New York? Almost certainly not (we hope), but I suppose it doesn€™t hurt to have the director on your side. And well, if Breck Eisner, the guy who made Sahara, can find himself in charge of remaking the pinnacle anti-establishment genre classic of the 80's, then who knows, really? We kinda denounced the whole idea of a Escape from New York remake with Gerard Butler starring, and Len Wiseman (Live Free or Die Hard) directing but that project looks like Citizen Kane compared to this scenario. In an June 23rd dated interview with MovieWeb, Eisner praised Olyphant€™s work on The Crazies (did he see the same movie we did??), and when asked directly if he would be a good fit for Plissken, worryingly, Eisner was into the idea. So much so that he's clearly thought about it way too much already;
Creatively, he would be great for it. We have not yet discussed internally within the studio who will play Snake Plissken. There are many factors that go into those discussions. First and foremost, obviously, is the creative one. We can't make the movie unless we get the perfect Snake Plissken, and that's a tall order. There are very few guys that could do it. He would definitely be one of the guys who could. There is no question about that.
Eisner also told MovieWeb his whole pitch for the project but honestly, who the f***k cares? Unless you are Christopher Nolan or David Fincher... remaking Escape From New York is just not going to work. Eisner looks to be making a name for himself by remaking and updating classic genre films of the recent past - kind of like directing version of Platinum Dunes producer Michael Bay. After the success he had with The Crazies, there were even rumors that Eisner would be directing the remake of David Cronenberg€™s horror film from 1979, The Brood. In the MovieWeb interview, Eisner explains that he has a love for 70s horror, specifically because €œ70s horror hardly ever ended happy.€ The Brood certainly fits into this category, but in an interview with DreadCentral.com Eisner insists that he will not be directing the remake.
€œIt was only rumored that I was doing that film. Honestly? I just couldn€™t€The reason I passed is that I like that movie far too much. The Brood is just so daring and so risky and so flawed and amazing, ridiculous and incredible, that I€™m just too much of a fan of that movie and its execution to remake it. It€™s perfect the way that it is, and I love it too much to ever touch it.€
What - and you don't feel the same way about Escape from New York? Eisner also has a Flash Gordon film in the works;
€œIt€™s just a gigantic 3D experience with years of prep, it€™s one of those movies you get once in a lifetime to make and for me it€™s been a passion of mine since I was a kid. If I could pick and just control everything I would love to make Flash Gordon, it€™s really kind of my dream job, but it€™s multi-year, in terms of writing and designing.€
According to Eisner, the screenplay is an original storyline not taken from the comic strip or the 1981 film.