The iconic 1980s role Kurt Russell has “no problem” being replaced in: “Movies are movies”
Because everything that’s old in Hollywood will eventually become new again, mostly because fresh ideas are becoming more dangerously thin on the ground than ever, the era of remaking Kurt Russell movies began a while ago, and it’s far from over.
Having started his career in the 1960s and remained a fixture of the screen ever since, there was no chance that the actor’s filmography would be immune from the reboot or remake machine, and it turns out that he’s much more protective of some roles than others.
Overboard might have a special place in his heart, since it’s the best and most famous film he made alongside Goldie Hawn, unless you’ve got a real soft spot for The Christmas Chronicles, and we’re not here to judge, but he didn’t bat an eyelid when it was given a fresh coat of paint in 2018.
John Carpenter’s seminal sci-fi horror, The Thing, was also put through the wringer of reinvention, and while it was technically a prequel to the classic 1982 original, it was still marketed and sold on the back of its ties to one of the greatest genre films of its era, not that it could hold a candle to a masterpiece.
That said, Russell makes it sound an awful lot like you’d have to prise Snake Plissken from his cold, dead hands. Unfortunately, there’s nothing he can do about that. If there’s one saving grace, it’s that an Escape from New York redux has been in various stages of development for the better part of two decades, and it’s still no closer to escaping from cinematic purgatory.
He made those thoughts perfectly clear when he summed up his stance on a potential remake by issuing a blunt, “Fuck that! I am Snake Plissken!” which is true. It would be a near-impossible order for anyone to replace him as the eye-patch-wearing antihero, but when it comes to another one of his most iconic 1980s roles, Russell seemed a lot more forgiving.
In theory, and by any conceivable metric, a fresh twist on Big Trouble in Little China is as needless as it is pointless. Carpenter’s cult favourite is such a unique thing that it’d be impossible to stuff its particular and peculiar brand of lightning back into the bottle. Dwayne Johnson hinted that he’d like to try, though, and Russell was surprisingly on board with it.
“Dwayne Johnson as Jack Burton?” he queried. “Hey, I’m sure he’ll come up with a good take on it. I’ve got no problem with that. Movies are movies. You throw the dice and see what happens. At the end of the day, all that ever matters is you make a movie that holds up, and John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China holds up.”
He’s right; John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China does hold up, which makes a remake completely redundant. Russell was indignant at someone stepping into Snake’s shoes, but he doesn’t mind ‘The Rock’ inheriting Burton. Hopefully it doesn’t happen, because nobody wants, needs, or is interested in seeing it.
