Who Should Play Snake Plissken?

There’s been a lot of talk lately about rebooting Snake Plissken from Escape to New York fame.  The new plan calls for a trilogy of films with a new actor playing Snake Plissken.

Although I like the idea, I’m not lining up for ticket just yet.  Way back in 2006, it was reported that John Carpenter and Kurt Russell were meeting with studio execs about making a third Snake Plissken movie to be titled Escape from Earth.

The movie never materialized.

Then in 2007, it was announced that Gerard Butler [star of the fan favorite and record setting “300”] was set to take on the role of Snake Plissken and Ken Nolan [“Black Hawk Down”] was on board to produce the screenplay which would have updated the 1981 John Carpenter script.

Again, nada.

When Kurt Russell was asked his thoughts about a remake of Escape from New York with Gerard Butler as Snake, Russell responded, “I am Snake Plissken… I do think that character was quintessentially one thing. And that is, American.  I have nothing against Gerard Butler. I think he was great in 300 and I expect him to do other cool projects.”

Of course neither Butler nor Russell got a chance to play Snake in a remake because it never happened.

Three years later we were told, Escape from New York was being prepped for a reboot. The Plissken role made famous by [Kurt] Russell would be re-cast with a yet-to-be named actor.

That resulted in… nothing.

So a little over a week ago when the news broke that there had been movement on a trilogy of Snake Plissken movies, I didn’t hold my breath.  I did suggest that Guy Pearce would be my choice to play Snake.

Of course that goes against Kurt Russell’s thoughts that not only should Snake be an American, but the actor playing him should be as well.  As Russell told Empire in a recent interview:

When it comes to Snake, I can tell you one thing… he’s American. It’s really important that he’s American. There’s a reason why that great fight in the arena [in Escape From New York] is with a baseball bat. That’s American, OK? He knows what he’s doing with that bat in his hand!

It’s also interesting to note that Russell no longer feels he should be the one to play Snake.  As he told John Carpenter in this exchange from the same interview in Empire:

“Could I do it again?” asks Russell, shaking his head. “No.”. Carpenter interjects: “He could do Old Snake.” Russell sighs. “I never wanted to do Snake old.” “Why not?” asks Carpenter. “If you’re going to do him,” expands Russell, “do him young. He’s one of those guys.”

Since Guy Pearce is Australian, who should play Snake?  I’ll have to get back to you on that… when the remake is a little closer to reality.