Kurt
Russell is giving his B-movie, eye-patched mercenary hero, Snake
Plissken, just what he deserves--his own television series.
Russell is reteaming with the filmmakers who made the original Escape
from New York--writer-director John
Carpenter and producer Debra Hill--to executive produce a new hourlong
syndicated TV version, according to the Hollwood Reporter.
In the 1981 sci-fi cult classic, Snake--condemned criminal and former
war hero--wins his freedom by rescuing the President from a group of
convicts after his plane is shot down over New York, which has been turned
into a giant penal colony. Russell and company want the new series to
introduce a new generation of fans to the character he made famous in the
original and its 1996 sequel, Escape
from L.A.
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"It's exciting to reinvent a movie for a whole new generation of
people," Hill tells the Reporter. "It's exciting to try to figure
out a way to keep that story line going for 100 episodes."
Russell will not be acting in the series, however. Producers are
already searching for a new Snake in hopes to have the show to debut
sometime in the 2001 television season.
The small-screen version of Escape will still be set in a 21st
century decimated by man-made catastrophes and surrounded by hardened
criminals. This time around, though, Snake won't be running around saving
politicans or their daughters from metropolitans-turned-prisons.
Instead, he'll have a more permanent job working for the President as a
roving agent for the U.N., visiting surviving cities around the world and
helping to bring normalcy to the devastated populace. But ultimately he
must stay alive to defeat his nemesis, Police Commissioner Bob Hauk
(played by Lee Van
Cleef in the original).
And if the new Snake catches on, Hill says she and Carpenter would
consider shooting another feature with Russell in the lead.
With New York and L.A. already proving escapable, the third installment
would be a bit more challenging. The next time out, the long-in-the-tooth
Snake and his charges would be pulling an Escape from Earth.
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