![]() But then it was just, “Say the lines that are there.” His main contribution was as soon as he found out that Lee Van Cleef was in the movie, he said, “I know what I’m doing. As he became a big movie star later, he worked a little bit more behind the scenes. So he doesn’t come in with a lot of line changes at that time. JC: Well, Kurt as an actor, you have to understand he was Disney trained. Well, we’re all glad you did! How collaborative was Kurt at that stage with developing his character? Or was he like, “This is what’s on the page, let’s just dive in?” I’m not sure that he can do the part.” That’s fine with me. I mean, they wanted to talk about it and they wouldn’t be doing their job if they didn’t say, “We have concerns about this. He played Elvis, he can play Snake Plissken.” So they relented. ![]() They said, “Well, he’s just this Disney kid.” I said, “No, no, no. They were uncertain about Kurt as a hero. ĭid you have carte blanche after HALLOWEEN in terms of your casting choices? Or was there any pressure from your distributor, AVCO Embassy Pictures, to go with a more established star? Here’s this Disney kid and he’s tough as nails, and he created a real memorable character. I’d just worked with him in ELVIS and I really loved working with him. … the project came along in ’80 and I cast Kurt Russell. I thought about Charles Bronson playing the part, a tough guy at the time. That idea stuck with me, and I thought of writing this kind of dystopian future story about New York as a prison and a guy has to go in to rescue the president. So who’re you going to choose to go in there and do something with some mission? The most evil guy in the universe. I read a Harry Harrison story - there was this planet, the toughest, most evil place in the universe. It wasn’t a great film, but it was a fun movie. And something about the movie struck a chord with me. And this Charles Bronson movie, DEATH WISH, came along and he was a vigilante architect, of all things. New York was having some big, giant problems at the time - I’m thinking bankruptcy and a crime problem. One was a movie called DEATH WISH, which was out in the ’70s. ![]() John Carpenter: Well, there were a bunch of different things that propelled me to work on this movie and make this movie. I’d love to have your CliffsNotes version of the making of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK from your perspective 35 years later. Thirty-five years after its summer 1981 release, I got to chat with Carpenter about ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK exclusively for Famous Monsters magazine, and it was a thrill to hear new tales and insights. That’s the hook that made all of us want to go for a thrill ride with Kurt in John Carpenter’s newest adventure in 1981, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, a radically different film from his previous big-screen entries, 1978’s game-changing indie film HALLOWEEN and his 1980 horror follow-up, THE FOG. is at war and the president was on his way to a summit meeting to avert a nuclear crisis with China and the Soviet Union. Oh yeah, and the human race depends on Snake’s success, because the U.S. Adding to the ticking clock is a mini-explosive in his bloodstream timed to detonate in 24 hours. Snake Plissken (played by Kurt Russell), a battle-hardened hero-turned-convict, is tasked by the government with extracting the president within 24 hours in exchange for a full pardon. Manhattan Island is a maximum federal penitentiary, and the president’s plane has crashed in the middle of it.
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