Escape From L.A.
Despite 1981’sEscape From New Yorkbeing a decisive and commercial-grade success , it took 15 years forJohn Carpenterto make his sequelEscape From LA . As extremely as Carpenter is generally consider , and as many legendary picture show as his resume boasts , he ’s also seen quite a few of his projects take years to catch on . Films likeThe Thing , They experience , In the Mouth of Madness , andHalloween 3 : Season of the Witch- which he did n’t manoeuver but did write and bring out - all took a longsighted time to build up up the large pursuit they now all sport .
On the other hand , Escape From New Yorkwas a hit right out of the gate . Carpenter ’s dystopian fib of a badass malefactor forced to rescue the prexy from inside what ’s now the Manhattan maximum security island prison or conk out trying caught on speedily , earning on positivistic reviews , and $ 25.2 million at the box office . That might not go like much today , but in 1981 , it was a good ball of cash for a motion-picture show to make , especially one that only cost roughly $ 6 million to bring on .
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That combined with the almost directly iconic nature ofKurt Russell ’s Snake Plissken character should ’ve logically lead to the next big military action franchise . Yet only one continuation was ever made , and it took a foresightful time to get . Here ’s why .
Why Escape From LA Took 15 Years To Make
In 1985 , four year after the runaway success ofEscape From New York , John Carpentercommissioned a script for a sequel , which is actually kind of odd for him , as he ’s written or co - written most of his films himself , includingEscape From New York . Anyway , a playscript was indeed write by Coleman Luck , who would go to on to publish and produce a caboodle for TV in the eighties and 1990s . Carpenter was restless with Luck ’s playscript , feeling it was too easy and campy . The projection was then hold over while both Carpenter and Russell did circle of other things .
at long last , quite a few year later , Russell convinced Carpenter and his frequent cooperator Debra Hill to sit down down and publish the playscript themselves . Carpenter has said that without Russell ’s dour pushing to try and get the sequel made , Escape From LAwould never have become a realness . Russell was very adoring ofSnake Plissken , and really wanted to play the theatrical role again on the big screen . Escape From LAis in reality Russell ’s only writing credit ever , try out just how much of his own clip he was uncoerced to invest in returning to Snake . Unfortunately , Escape From LAwas a boxful office flop , although Carpenter himself believes it to good than the archetype . It ’s a bit amusing in hindsight that Luck ’s hand was disapprove for being too camp though , asEscape From LAended up quite camp anyway .
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