Gerard Butler: Call Him Snake

Gerard Butler: Call Him Snake


Screenhead.com



March 13, 2007


by justin



Uber-agency CAA has begun shopping a package around Hollywood’s studios. For those not familiar with the Variety lingo, a “package” is a movie project with famous names already attached, all of them clients of whatever agency is doing the shopping. This one happens to be centered around newly hot action star Gerard Butler, fresh off 300’s boffo b.o. The film? A remake of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York.

That cry you hear is a million fan boys weeping at once.

Also attached are producer Neal Moritz and screenwriter Ken Nolan. Butler would be playing Snake Plissken, the one-eyed loner originally portrayed by Kurt Russell. Due to Butler’s sudden rise in popularity, a deal is expected to be made by the end of the week.

Despite the mixed results of remaking Carpenter’s other films, I think this one has a good chance. Butler proved in 300 that he can play one-dimensional stony badasses. All he really has to do is lower Leonidas’ “THIS! IS! SPARTA!” yelling to a growly, gravelly Kurt Russell timber. The other reason I think this could work out well is that my main problem with the original Escape From New York is that it felt rushed, like they were running out of budget and needed to wrap up the story. Snake was a cool enough character that I wanted to watch him get beaten up a few more times and shoot a couple more people. With an expanded budget, a new film could give us the action epic the story merits

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