ComingSoon got an early look at the first teaser poster and some of the artwork for the new techno-thriller, Game. Written and directed by Crank creators, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, the film stars Gerard Butler as the consummate player of a virtual game with some pretty heavy real-life consequences. The story is "set in a dystopian future of implanted nano-devices, where the ultimate online simulation environment is humans remote-controlling other humans in mass-scale, multi-player online gaming. The lead character, played by Butler, is a worldwide sensation, and the top-ranked warrior in a game called "Slayers." With his every move tracked by millions, he battles to regain his identity and bring down the entire system". Joining Butler are Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer) and Dexter's Michael C. Hall as the game's evil creator.

Butler has been picking up parts right and left after the success of 300; everything from romantic weepies to crime drama -- and I know which one I'd be more inclined to shell out my hard-earned dollars for, how about you? Butler is going to have one less commitment to worry about this year since it turns out he will not be taking on the role of Snake Plissken in the update of Escape from New York. Christopher brought us the 'good' news recently citing 'creative differences' as the catalyst for Butler leaving the project. So that film is now officially without a director or a star. So I don't think it is just me, but I wouldn't count on seeing Escape any time soon considering the rate people are dropping from the project. As for Game, the film is currently in production and expected to be released in 2009.

UPDATE: It seems the artwork has been taken down; not sure why. Sorry about that folks.

Once again, I'm going to pretend like I made something happen. Two days ago, on this very Cinematical program, I declared that there can be only one Snake Plissken in movieland, and he shall be forever played by Kurt Russell. Well, perhaps Gerard Butler agrees with me, because he's now dropped out of the remake of Escape from New York, according to Variety. The trade says the decision was due to creative differences, which could very well mean that New Line wants to go with the Snake Plissken name, while Butler sided with me in saying that was a bad idea. Of course, I don't want to be responsible for Butler quitting a gig; after all, I implied that it was okay for the 300 star to do the remake, just that he needed another, less-iconic character name. Regardless, though, Butler's departure follows news that Brett Ratner is no longer or was never attached to direct the movie, which had followed news that Len Wiseman was also not involved. And suddenly the project is empty of talent. But for those three of you who are looking forward to it, the remake is not dead yet. New Line has hired Jonathan Mostow to script a rewrite and has apparently offered him the option to direct as well.

Mostow, who interestingly enough directed Russell in Breakdown, will be revising the current script penned by Ken Nolan. Back in July, Aint it Cool News posted a review of the earlier draft; revealing that it was relatively faithful to John Carpenter's original while also being modernized with timely relevance to the Middle East conflicts. The script also was said to feature flashbacks to Snake's military career in order to show background for his imprisonment. We'll have to wait and see if Mostow changes much of the details from that version, but I think we can trust the project in his hands. Sure, he's been known to play with history, substituting Americans for British in significant WWII plots, and he seemed to piss off a lot of fans with his direction of Terminator 3: Rise o the Machines (not me, though; I enjoyed it), but Mostow is a heck of a lot better than Wiseman and Ratner. So, should he direct? Is it like choosing the lesser of evils? Do you wish New Line would just scrap the whole thing altogether (they won't -- they paid too much for it)? And most importantly, who should play Snake, or "guy who isn't called Snake" as I suggested the character to be named, now that Butler is out?

Fire up the flame war, because I'm about to admit to another crazy opinion: John Carpenter's Escape from New York is boring. It's a great concept -- that of Manhattan being a maximum security prison in which a military prisoner must seek and rescue the President of the United States in order to receive a pardon. The movie is even relatively impressive considering its low budget, regardless of how dated it now looks. But it just doesn't have enough going on to garner as much praise as it receives. Maybe if I'd seen it 25 years ago I would have the same fondness that its fans have, but I saw it this year and was seriously disappointed; and yes, I was extremely bored. Because of this crazy opinion, I actually wouldn't mind seeing a well-done remake. Unfortunately, I don't believe I will get to see such a thing considering the directors so far linked to the job. First there was Len Wiseman (I still haven't seen Live Free or Die Hard, so I can't judge him completely). Then there was the much worse news that Brett Ratner was taking the helm. Fortunately, we can count him out too, as Aint it Cool News has relayed an email claiming Ratner himself denied his involvement.

I'll admit one other thing, that may save me from too many flames: Kurt Russell is the only Snake Plissken. No matter who New Line gets to direct the EFNY redo, the studio might as well save themselves some pain by changing the main character's name. Technically there's no reason to do this, but for those of us who associate Russell with Snake, it would be a wonderful, narratively insignificant change (I even have a suggestion for a "new" name: Ben Richards). Yeah, I know I just saw the movie for the first time within twelve months, but even without sitting through the thing, I spent the last 25 years with the image of Russell with the eyepatch in my head. That means he's a part of the pop-cultural consciousness. Giving us a new Snake, at least by name, is like trying to re-introduce Mickey Mouse as a rat. Or Ronald McDonald as a bearded lady. Or Willy Wonka as Michael Jackson. Anyway, that is my invitation for scrutiny for the day, and I'm sticking by it. The Escape from New York remake, hopefully starring Gerard Butler as "some other dude with an eye patch," is due in 2009.

Shoot 'Em Up opens this week, and Clive Owen is making Bugs Bunny look all sorts of tough and cool. He banters. He sexes up the ladies. He handles guns like a pro. Heck, he even tries to buy them with food stamps. All this badness and guns has thrown me into an antihero state of mind. But before I can go a-listing, we've got to decide what an antihero is.

Blending all of the vague definitions together, your antihero is basically the person who doesn't imbue the classic attributes of heroism. This could mean being inept and stupid, but for the means of this list, I'm going for the antiheroes whose methods, manners and intentions can be questioned. Some are good guys who do bad things, some are bad guys who do good things. Some just don't care as much as a good hero should. But they're all so uber cool that whether you've seen the films or not, you know who they are, and you might just be quoting them.

Note: Only one cop is included on this list, and it isn't John McClane -- he's much more of a bitter hero than a questionable antihero.

Harry Callahan -- Dirty Harry (1971)

I know what you're thinking: "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

While I love most of the guys on this list, the one who has to be there above all others is Dirty Harry Callahan. He might be a cop trying to keep the streets safe, but instead of upholding the law, he enforces morality with his gun, boot, or whatever else he can find. In the first of the action series, Callahan is hunting down Scorpio, a serial killer loosely based on the Zodiac killer. He tortures suspects when he needs to, and does it all in a suit, tie and sweater. Most of all, he's "Dirty," but no one knows the specific reason why.

We caught up with Kurt Russell at the Grindhouse press junket over the weekend, and we were able to get the skinny from him on the developing hubbub over the possibility of Gerard Butler playing Snake Plissken in the remake of Escape from New York. The full junket report is coming very soon, but here's a sample:

Question: They've announced that they want to remake The Thing, and your The Thing with John Carpenter is one of the great remakes. What do you think about that, and would you like someone else to go in and play Snake Plissken? "You know, it's been a long time and I've seen a lot of it. They remade one of the Disney movies I was in ... The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. They took Stargate and made it into the most successful series, they took Backdraft and made that into two television shows that did okay I guess, They're gonna remake The Thing, they talked about remaking Escape from New York. You know what ... whatever, and good on you."

Question: So, you're not worried about it? "I feel like we did what we did, and that's always gonna be there. It'll be there to be compared, I'm sure it will be, they have to do that. My thoughts on it were, as a joke, you know when somebody said that about Gerard Butler playing Snake ... it is interesting to create a role that is iconic, and then have somebody go do that. That's interesting. At the same time, I had a sort of joke response, which is the way look at life, which is 'Oh my god, wait 'til Stuntman Mike (his character in Death Proof) hears about this.' (laughter).

"That's how I feel about! Maybe 30 years from now, someone's gonna do Stuntman Mike, and, well ... I got my version. You know, that's kind of all I think about it, I don't know what else to say."

So, probably not the final word on the whole matter, but it sounds like once he originally blew off some steam about the issue, he's starting to come to terms with it. Not sure he'll be front and center at the premiere for the remake, however.

I am now certain that John Carpenter made a Pact With the Devil. With this evil bargain Carpenter gained an awesome career making classic after classic in the 70s and 80s. Satan, on the other hand, gained remake rights to all of these classics, which he is now selling off to the studios. With a just announced redo of Escape From New York added to the list, all five of Carpenter's features from 1976 (Assault on Precinct 13) to 1982 (The Thing) have been or are being remade. Of course, The Thing doesn't exactly count since Carpenter's was already a remake, but if I hear about an update of Christine or Dark Star, I'm going to start getting worried about my most beloved Carpenter classic, Big Trouble in Little China.

The new Escape From New York is being written by Ken Nolan (Black Hawk Down) but no director is attached yet. Gerard Butler, a hot property now that 300 is a hit, is in negotiations for the role of patch-eyed Snake Plissken, who was played by Kurt Russell in the original as well as the sequel, Escape From L.A. (I guess he definitely won't be doing Escape From Earth now.) The film, for those of you who aren't familiar, is set in Manhattan in the future (1997 in the original) after the whole borough has been turned into a maximum security prison. When the President of the United States crash lands on the island, his rescue is put in the hands of Snake, a prisoner who is offered freedom if his mission is successful.

As you hopefully recall, we reported yesterday on the at least slightly dubious rumor that Paramount recently held a high-level meeting about making another Snake Plissken movie -- Escape from Earth, based on an old John Carpenter screenplay. No one really knew if the anonymous tipster's story was reliable or not until AICN rumor-king Harry Knowles Moriarty jumped on the email horn and checked in with Carpenter and his wife/producer Sandy King to get some answers. And, in short, it's not happening. As it happens, though, Carpenter actually was very busy last week, just not with Paramount. According to King, her husband "spent a rousing week playing Tom Clancy's war video games and smoking in his favorite chair and eating fried chicken." Man. So that's what life is like for John Carpenter? Can I be a legendary screenwriter/director/composer, too?

Today's sequel rumors involve two franchises, one beloved and the other profitable. The first is the Snake Plissken saga, which began with the cult classic Escape from New York, and was later revived with the not-great (but excusable because, you know, it's Snake) Escape from L.A. According to a report at Blood Disgusting, Snake may just be escaping again in the near future -- their tipster claims that "A major meeting was held at Paramount last week with both John Carpenter and Kurt Russell in attendance." Supposedly, the screenplay (which is called Escape from Earth -- is it possible to jump the shark just from a title?) was completed years ago, but Paramount wasn't interested until Russell told them he'd only sign a new, three-picture deal if they made another Escape first. Hmm. Really? Russell's a good, quiet actor when he's allowed to play a normal guy, but why on earth would signing him be so important that Paramount would sink cash into a movie they've got no reason to believe would turn a profit, particularly since Escape from LA was a loser for them? Neither Plissken nor Russell is exactly box office gold.

The other sequel being discussed, however, is pretty much guaranteed to make money: Charlie's Angels 3. According to Moviehole, Sky News is reporting that producer Drew Barrymore is hell-bent on keeping the series going, whether Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz -- not to mention director McG -- come back or not. Frankly, it's hard to think of reasons that Columbia wouldn't make this film eventually -- even the second one, which cost about $120 million and currently has as rating below five at the IMDb, took in over $250 million worldwide. What's not to like?