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Kurt Russell turned down Flash Gordon for this

posted a year ago by jk90us (7338)
13 replies | jump to latest

Reportedly, Kurt Russell turned down the role of Flash Gordon (1980) because he disliked the slapstick carefree nature of the film, and he did Escape from New York (1981) instead.

That makes sense because he was still trying to distance himself from his goofy child star Disney persona and be taken more seriously as an actor.

But then a few years later he made Big Trouble in Little China (1986), which had the same slapstick carefree nature as Flash Gordon.

[–] Kowalski (76215) a year ago

GOOD DECISION BY RUSSELL...BOTH OF THOSE FILMS WITH HIM ARE BETTER THAN FLASH GORDON.

[–] jk90us (7338) a year ago

Agree on all counts.

[–] TearofLys (2656) a year ago

Flash Gordon would have been awesome if Kurt played Flash.

[–] TearofLys (2656) a year ago

[deleted]

[–] Sandman81 (1509) a year ago

I would say that turned out to be an excellent decision by Kurt Russell.

First, Escape from New York is infinitely better than Flash Gordon.

Second, he got work with John Carpenter for the second time. They had already done the Elvis made for tv movie, and now he had the chance to not only do a movie with him, but a dark, gritty thriller which Carpenter had already shown a talent for making.

Third, the success of this movie lead to him following it up with The Thing, also directed by Carpenter. And three years after that he did the slapstick action-comedy movie, but at least it was by a director he trusted... John Carpenter.

[–] cyguration (3951) a year ago

Either would have been a great decision.

Flash Gordon is an awesome movie if you go in with no expectations. The Queen theme song is timeless, and the action is on point.

Timothy Dalton plays a great rival, and the chicks were all gorgeous in the film. Kurt definitely had the charisma and look to pull off a very convincing Flash, and the movie certainly would have been better for it.

Even still, Flash is still a fun watch, and Escape From New York City is one of the coolest, dystopian sci-fi films ever made.

[–] jk90us (7338) a year ago

Funny thing is Flash made more money ($27 mil) than Escape ($20 mil). But Flash cost $20 mil to make while Escape only cost $6 mil, so Escape had a much bigger profit.

[–] PaladinNJ (21524) 3 months ago

It was

[–] [deleted] a year ago

Russell would have made a horrible Flash Gordon. Sam Jones was a better choice.

[–] rateater (10075) a year ago

he was interested in doing something like mad max

[–] BKB (10075) a year ago

He made the right decision in the end

[–] moviechatterer (15777) a year ago

Big Trouble in Little China (1986) was a great film , and is not the same as Flash , and not a backward step for Kurt Either

[–] jk90us (7338) a year ago

No one said it was.