John Carpenter Had To Fight To Cast Kurt Russell In Escape From New York

Snake Plissken, the eyepatch-wearing badass at the center of John Carpenter's 1981 dystopian thriller "Escape from New York," is supposed to be — in a spiritual sense — the same as Clint Eastwood's character from Sergio Leone's Man with No Name trilogy. And if the taciturn demeanor, nihilistic standpoint, and growly voice didn't give it away, Carpenter also has Snake enact multiple scenes opposite Lee Van Cleef, Eastwood's antagonistic co-star in the same trilogy. In a strange piece of casting, though, Snake is played by Kurt Russell. Back in 1981, Russell, as a film star, was still best known for his childhood career with Disney , where he made lightweight, silly, family-friendly movies. His first movie for grown-ups was Robert Zemeckis' 1980 comedy "Used Cars," followed quickly by "E