Eli Roth discusses his Death Wish remake & it’s star Bruce Willis.
Bruce Willis is back! Well according to director Eli Roth, he soon will be in more ways than one. The director has recently taken on the task of remaking the 1974 action film Death Wish with Willis taking on the role of Paul Kersley originally played by Charles Bronson in what Roth hopes will lead to a revival of fortunes for Willis.
Willis had been relegated to mainly straight to DVD/Digital Download releases for the past decade or so and this may well be the return he’s been looking for in the form a major theatrical feature. The film co stars Elizabeth Shue, Vincent D’Onofrio and Breaking Bad’s Dean Norris. Speaking to Yahoo! Movies, Roth revealed his intentions for the iconic action star;
“We wanted to bring back that great, classic Bruce Willis we all know and love and just do a fun, badass update of a revered classic. I wanted to bring Bruce back to that Fifth Element, Unbreakable, Die Hard glory and have him craft another iconic performance, and I really think he did it. I mean I really think this can be his Taken.”
Roth also spoke of certain changes from the original Michael Winner directed cult classic, such as the change of employment for the character from an architect to a surgeon, as well as the change of setting from New York to Chicago, which has recently hit the headlines as the location of many violent crimes. Roth continued,
“We tried to keep it real, but this isn’t the movie to fully tackle that subject matter because it’s so grim and it’s such a big problem, you’re not gonna solve it in a film like Death Wish. What’s interesting about Death Wish is it’s not a CIA guy who’s coming out of retirement, you know, he’s not John Wick, he’s not a professional assassin. He’s a normal guy, he’s a surgeon, he’s a dad, he’s never picked up a gun in his life. This iteration of Paul Kersey learns how to handle steel by watching YouTube videos and at one point almost gets merked by his own ricocheted bullet. And with each kill as he gets closer to finding the people that did this to his family, he gains a new skill. He gets better and better and better. So by the end of the film he’s really much closer to John McClane… the very things that make him a good surgeon are what eventually make him a great killer.”
Death Wish is due for release in the US, November 22nd 2017.