This One's For Steve-O

Snake Plisskin isn't happy:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Over the past couple of months, Variety has reported that Hollywood is remaking The Thing and now Escape From New York. What's your take on that?

KURT RUSSELL: [Laughs] They're remaking everything I've ever done.

Some people are really attached to those movies.

Yeah, I think that's what happens to people as they get older, they get territorial and proprietary about these things. However, I will say that when I was told who was going to play Snake Plissken, my initial reaction was ''Oh, man!'' [Russell winces]. I do think that character was quintessentially one thing. And that is, American.

What other films of yours have been remade?

They remade a couple of Disney films that I made — Kirk Cameron did The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. They made Backdraft into two television series, Rescue Me and Third Watch, both of which I never saw. They did Stargate.

But messing with Snake Plissken is a whole different level of heresy...

People come up to me and say, ''You played Snake Plissken.'' I didn't play Snake Plissken, I created him! Goldie [Hawn] and I were talking the other day about this, and I said, ''Man, this is weird, isn't it?'' And she said, ''When they were going to do a remake of Private Benjamin, I thought, 'I didn't play Private Benjamin, I created that role!''' I did Wyatt Earp — there's only been 50 of those. But I'll tell you what, I'll put my Wyatt Earp up against anybody's. I'll put my MacCready [his character in The Thing] up against anybody's.

What if they asked you to do a cameo in the new Escape from New York, or play the Ernest Borgnine role?

F--- that! I am Snake Plissken! It's like Sean Connery always watching someone else do their version of Bond. I think one of the things, for instance, about Escape From New York that appealed to me was that it wasn't a special effects extravaganza. It's a quiet, dark world and it revolved around watching the behavior of this one guy. He's a fascinating character. In fact, he's the most complex character I've ever played.

[Ed. - The quality of the interview tape drops off considerably at this point, but a number of howls and screams can be heard before it ends abruptly.]

Yips! to that guy whose name I can't spell over at The Jawa Report.