Rumor: Josh Brolin to Play Snake Plissken in Escape From New York Remake
The curse of One-Eyed Willie…
UPDATE: The reader consensus seems to be 1) no, it’s not cool, this remake is utterly pointless and a disgrace, 2) where the hell will Snake “land the glider,” 3) Brolin is too old (not really understanding this one), 4) FTW, John Carpenter and Kurt Russell should team up to make Escape From Boston or Escape From Earth (good to see our readers’ idealism staying strong!).
This rumor is a wild red hair that sprouted from the pale leg of Spielberg News, but we’ll entertain it for now because it’s late at night, this remake is happening, and the casting would be pritty, pritty good. In a role that would nicely connect the eye-patched dots to his salad days on The Goonies, actor Josh Brolin is rumored to be the top contender to play dystopian, one-eyed rogue, Snake Plissken, in the planned remake of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York. Throughout the end of last year, Gerard Butler (300, The Game) was attached to Plissken, as were directors Brett Ratner (we coined it Escape From Brett Ratner) and Len Wisemen (Live Free or Die Censored), both of whom are no longer in the equation (thanks). This is how the site’s scoop translates from French to English…
“It is our scoop of the week. A source close to the production (if so) has assured us that it is now Josh Brolin to be in the running to take over the role of Snake Plissken in the remake currently in draft New York 1997.”
There are a lot of top actors taking on genre fare these days, but we’ve always been keen on Brolin for hypothetical franchise roles like Metal Gear Solid’s Solid Snake. Whereas the success of Butler’s casting as Plissken would be fully realized only by a really cool director, Brolin’s involvement, if it pans out, would give the remake unforseen cache. Though New Line is dismantled, the remake is purportedly going ahead, so we’ll update accordingly. Brolin will next be seen on screen this Fall as Dubbya (he botched a lay-up) in Oliver Stone’s W.
WHAT?!?: Has the Ending/Mega-Spoiler For Terminator 4 Been Revealed?
“I have arrived to destroy your Internetz!”
We’ve held off on posting about the gargantuan Terminator 4 spoiler that hit AICN yesterday because it just seemed so ‘tarded. Then again, this is a PG-13 Terminator with a subtitle that belongs on a Madonna biography, so anything can happen. 
Well, CHUD has connected the dots based on their own inside info and the verdict is that the ending/mega-spoiler may very well be legit. In their words, AICN just kicked McG’s film (the new first in a new trilogy) “in the balls.” Need I say that everything below this point is glowing radioactive with SPOILERS so do not read if you think your exoskeleton will melt.
Discuss: Please let us know what you think, you daring spoiler-seekers. Do you still have doubts (about the spoiler’s authenticity)? If it is indeed legit, do you feel this twist is a zany dealbreaker, because I do?
Here’s the original spoiler…
“Alright so the main character is a cyborg named Marcus. For some background, Marcus was a criminal who was executed in 2003. He donated his body to Project Angel which was involved with SkyNet. They take his body and make a terminator out of him so he’s a terminator skeleton but has living muscle/skin and a beating heart too. At the end of the movie John Connor is fighting a T800 model 101 and loses. He dies and the top resistance people come up with a plan to help the resistance keep fighting on. The resistance feels that it’s important to keep the image or idea that John Connor is still alive so the resistance keeps going. So they rip off Marcus’ skin and put John Connor’s on the skeleton so now Marcus is John Connor.”
Like I said, this post is dipped in spoiler substance, and no, it’s not safe to continue reading. Okay, so I liked Face/Off for what it was, but, if true, this is just too much. Devin at CHUD checked with numerous sources and came back with this…
“The rest of AICN/Mori’s spoiler - about the fate of Christian Bale’s John Connor - is stuff that I cannot confirm as solidly as Marcus the cyborg, but is what I had come to believe after talking to multiple sources. You may remember that I ran with the story that Bale would be playing a Terminator… well, I was sort of right. The confusion arose from the fact that by the end of the film, Connor is dead and Marcus, the cyborg Terminator, is impersonating him. “
There’s the possibility that the spoiler originates from an earlier draft, but if not, CHUD says “it’s on the money.” More on this as it develops.
The Dark Knight’s Direct-to-DVD Anime
Batmanonfilm has gotten their hands on a leaked info sheet for an yet-to-be-announced Batman anime project. The project would function much in the way that the Animatrix did for The Matrix films (which coincidentally was also released by Warner Bros).
The memo says that the project would consist of sic short stories which help bridge the gap between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. The PG-13 rated anthology will be geared to core fans and tween boys. The names supposedly attached to write the stories include: “Academy Award nominee Josh Olsen (The History of Violence), screenwriter of the Blade films and Batman Begins David Goyer, and famed comic book writer Brian Azzarello, amongst others.”
I’ve always found this type of intertwining extended movie world to be an interesting idea. I’m actually one of the few who liked the original Matrix video game, which connected the dots between the first and third films, and the Animatrix, using exclusive story footage shot with the film’s main actors as a reward to keep people playing. The quality of the connectivity between The Matrix properties can certainly be debated, but the idea was a good one. You can read the full Batman Anime memo at BOF.
Andy Serkis Talks Tintin And The Hobbit
We saw the trailer for Serkis’s next film, The Cottage, a couple of days ago. The film is a small budget British horror/comedy, which is a lot different from what we have seen him in before. He brought Gollum to life in The Lord Of The Rings, and was the man behind King Kong. His next movie with Peter Jackson will be Tintin, the first movie in a planned trilogy. Empire got the chance to talk to Serkis, and he revealed some very interesting details.
On Tintin:
“It was on the Avatar stage,” Serkis told us, referring to James Cameron’s currently shooting 3D CG sci-fi bonanza. “We had this incredible week. Cameron was there, Peter Jackson was there (who’s directing one of the three Tintin films), and Steven Spielberg was there (who’s directing another). All in the same room!”
Which means that the film will be using the same technology as Avatar, which shows the characters in their (almost) final form on monitors, even though they’re only in lycra body stockings on set. “You’re on a bare, empty stage with actors standing around in blue Lycra with dots on, but [on the monitor] the director is looking into a fully rendered, three-dimensional virtual set, with the actors as their characters”.
On The Hobbit:
“I think I’d find it very hard to turn down the opportunity to play Gollum again, because he’s become very much a part of me. For good or bad, he’s still very much there!”.