Wyatt Russell Sought For ‘Escape’ Remake

Invisible Man director Leigh Whannell is attached to direct Escape From New York. Asked by JoBlo whether or not it makes sense to hire Kurt Russell’s son for the new film, Whannell says Wyatt’s casting could well happen as it “seems like the obvious thing to win the fans over”. He then goes on to explain the difficulty in adapting such a classic:

“It’s funny, I’ve been so busy working on this film [The Invisible Man] where I haven’t had time to circle back around on that project. Sometimes these press releases go out before you’re ready, you’re like, ‘Don’t tell the world!’ I don’t actually know, I really don’t.

That is an iconic character and I think that Snake Plissken is a part of people’s childhood and their adolescence. It’s near and dear to them. So I would tread very carefully with that. I feel like a property like that doesn’t have the same freedom as maybe something like ‘The Invisible Man’ does. He has more elasticity as a character because so many people have had their fingerprints on that. There’s been TV shows and comic books, whereas with Escape from New York, we’re talking about one definitive movie here and you don’t want to mess with it. We’ll see what happens.”

He also says they are keen to avoid the ‘bloated tent pole’ remake stigma.